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JPritirpton  ®b?nlrmtral  g>pmtnartJ 

BV  A501  .P53 

Pierson,  Arthur  T.  1837- 

1911. 

Shall  we  continue  in  sin? 


asg  Brtbur  Z,  ipierson. 


The  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles:  or, 

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SHALL  WE 

CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

A  VITAL  QUESTION  FOR  BELIEVERS 
ANSWERED    IN    THE    WORD    OF    GOD 


THE    SUBSTANCE    OF    ADDRESSES    DELIVERED    IN 
GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   IRELAND   IN   1896 


BY 


v" 


ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON 


NEW  YORK 

THE   BAKER   &   TAYLOR   COMPANY 

5  AND  7  East  Sixteenth  Street 


Copyright,  1897,  by 
THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 


TROW  nmtcTO«» 

raiNTINa  AND  eiOKeivOINOCOMPMIt 

NEW  YORK 


Zo 
REV.  EVAN  H.   HOPKINS, 

OF  LONDON,   ENGLAND, 

And  to  those  who  with  him  are  seeking  to  lead  God's  people  out 

of  the  wilderness  into  the  Land  of  Promise,  and  teach  them 

•'  The  Law  of  Liberty  in  the  Spiritual  Life,"  this  little 

book  is  dedicated  by  his  friend,    the   Author,   with 

deep   affection,    and  gratitude  for    the   blessing 

received  through  his  testimony  to  the  fulness 

of  Blessing  which  is  in 

Christ  Jesus 


CONTENTS 


Introductory,     

I.  Judicial  Union  with  Christ, 

II.  Vital  Union  with  Christ, 

III.  Practical  Union  with  Christ, 

IV.  Actual  Union  with  Christ,  . 
V.  Marital  Union  with  Christ, 

VI.  Spiritual  Union  with  Christ, 

VII.  Eternal  Union  with  Christ, 


PAGE 

9 

13 

32 

.    47 

.    60 

.    79 
.    91 

.  107 


SHALL  WE  CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 


INTRODUCTORY 

The  Bible  is  the  most  practical  of  all  books.  It 
is  a  fact,  both  curious  and  significant,  that,  some- 
where, in  the  word  of  God,  we  may  find  at  least 
once,  a  full  if  not  an  exhaustive  discussion  of  each 
particular  matter,  which  has  close  relations  to 
man's  salvation  and  sanctification. 

For  example,  the  value  and  excellence  of  the 
Law  of  God  is  treated  in  Psalm  cxix. ;  the  fact  of 
Vicarious  Atonement,  in  Isaiah  liii. ;  the  nature  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  and  its  true  subjects,  in  Mat- 
thew v.,  vi.,  vii. ;  the  Beauty  of  Charity,  in  I,  Cor- 
inthians xiii. ;  the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead,  in  I, 
Corinthians  xv. ;  the  Principles  of  Christian  Giving, 
in  II,  Corinthians  viii.,  ix.,  etc.  The  person  and 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  John  xiv.,  xv.,  xvi.  The 
present  Rest  of  Faith,  in  Hebrews  iii.,  iv.  The 
mischief  of  an  untamed  tongue,  in  James  iii.  And 
so  here,  in  three  chapters,  in  Romans  vi.,  vii.,  viii., 
we  have  the  Duty  and  Privilege  of  non-continuance 
in  Sin  set  before  us  with  a  clearness  and  fulness 


lO  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

which  make   all  other    discussion  of  the  subject 
comparatively  needless. 

We  cannot  mistake  the  subject  here  treated.  The 
sixth  chapter  opens  with  the  plain  question  :  Shall 
we  continue  in  sin?  a  question  substantially  repeated 
in  verse  15,  Shall  we  sin  ?  and  in  chapter  vii.  7, 
Is  the  Law  Sin  ?  In  all  three  cases  the  answer 
is  a  short,  energetic,  and  most  emphatic  "  God 
forbid  !  "  The  very  thought  is  to  be  put  away  as 
a  fatal  snare  to  the  soul,  as  when  Christ  said  to 
Satan,  "Get  thee  hence!"  Nothing  could  more 
clearly  teach  that  continuance  in  sinning  is  to 
be  regarded  by  every  true  child  of  God  as  both 
needless  and  wrong.  The  doctrine  of  sinlessness 
is  not  here  taught,  but  of  not  continuing  in  sin. 
Being  without  sin,  and  not  going  on  in  sin,  are 
two  quite  different  things.* 

*  Comp.  I  John  i.  8 — ii.  i .  Also  Dr.  Handley  Moule,  in  a 
letter  quoted  in  the  Horailetic  Review.  September,  1896,  p.  242. 

"  But  I  come  to  speak  briefly  of  the  limits. 

"  I  will  not  dwell  upon  them,  but  I  must  indicate  them.  I 
mean,  of  course,  not  limits  in  our  aims,  for  there  must  be  none, 
nor  limits  in  divine  grace  itself,  for  there  are  none,  but 
limits,  however  caused,  in  the  actual  attainment  by  us  of 
Christian  holiness. 

"  Here  I  hold,  with  absolute  conviction,  alike  from  the  ex- 
perience of  the  church  and  from  the  infallible  Word,  that,  in 
the  mystery  of  things,  there  will  be  limits  to  the  last,  and  very 
humbling  limits,  very  real  fallings  short.  To  the  last  it  will  be 
a  sinner  that  walks  with  God.  To  the  last  will  'abide  in  the 
regenerate'  (art.  ix.)  that  strange  tendency,  that  'mind  of  the 


INTRODUCTORY  II 

Thus  does  Paul  introduce  a  discussion  of  this 
theme  which  occupies  three  chapters  of  this  epistle  ; 
for  there  seems  to  be  no  break  in  the  continuity 
of  the  argument,  until  the  close  of  the  eighth 
chapter,  where,  manifestly,  he  closes  the  discussion 
of  this  subject  and  enters  upon  another.  To  ex- 
amine this  topic,  therefore,  and  get  the  whole  force 
of  the  divine  argument,  we  need  to  regard  these 
three  chapters  as  a  whole,  and  follow  from  step 
to  step,  till  we  reach  the  grand  climax. 

One  great  thought  runs  like  a  thread  of  gold 
through  the  whole  of  this  process  of  reasoning, 
namely :  that  the  disciple's  security  for  non- continuance 
in  sinning  is  found  in  his  Union  with  the  Lord  Jesus  - 
Christ.  This,  which  in  previous  chapters  is  pre- 
sented as  the  sole  ground  of  Justification,  is  now 
presented  also  as  the  sole  basis  and  hope  of  Sane- 
tification:  as  Christ  does  away  with  the  penalty  for 
sin  by  His  death,  so  by  His  Life  He  puts  an  end  to 
its  power  over  the  true  believer. 

flesh,'  which  eternal  grace  can  wonderfully  deal  with,  but 
which  is  a  tendency  still. 

«  To  the  last,  the  soul's  acceptance  before  the  Judge  is 
wholly  and  only  in  the  righteousness,  the  merits,  of  Christ. 

•«To  the  last,  if  we  say  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  our- 
selves.  In  the  pure,  warm  sunshine  of  the  Father's  smile 
shed  upon  him,  the  loving  and  willing  child  will  yet  say,  '  Enter 
not  into  judgment  with  thy  servant.'  Walking  in  the  light  as 
He  is  in  the  light,  having  fellowship  with  him,  and  He  with 
us,  we  yet  need  to  the  last  the  blood  of  Calvary,  the  blood 
of  propitiation,  to  deal  with  sin." 


13  SHALL    IV E   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

As  these  chapters  are  carefully  examined,  this 
union  of  the  disciple  with  Christ  appears  to  be 
considered  in  a  seven-fold  aspect  which,  for  conven- 
ience sake,  we  may  indicate  or  designate  by  seven 
words  which,  without,  perhaps,  being  scrupulously 
exact,  may  serve  simply  as  so  many  landmarks  to 
outline  the  grand  divisions  of  the  argument:  Ju- 
dicial, Vital,  Practical,  Actual,  Marital,  Spiritual, 
and  Eternal. 


JUDICIAL    UNION     WITH    CHRIST 

The  first  aspect  of  this  union  of  the  believer 
with  Christ  is  the  Judicial.     This  belongs  first  in 
logical  order  as  basis  of  all  the  rest.    This  word, 
Judicial,  is  a  legal  term,  having  reference  to  the 
act  or  decision  of  a  judge  in  a  court  of  law.     It  is 
peculiar  in  this,  that  it  has  no  necessary  reference 
to,  or  connection  with,  the  actual  character  or  even 
guilt  of    the  accused  party.     A  judicial  decision 
concerns  one  question  only,  namely,  the  claim  of 
the  law  upon  him  and  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court 
over  him.     A  man  may  be  actually  a  transgressor, 
and  yet  for  some  reason  be  not  amenable  to  a  legal 
penalty.     There  may  be  some  technicality,  under 
cover  of  which  he  escapes,  or  some  sovereign  act 
of  mercy  removing  him  from  the  control  of  the 
court,  or  some  interposition  of  a  third  party  medi- 
ating between  him  and  exact  justice.     In  either 
case,  without  regard  to  his  essential  merit  or  the 
moral  desert  of  his  acts,  the  judge  pronounces  him 
acquitted,  in  effect  legally  innocent.     A  judicial 


14  SHALL    WE    CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

decision,  therefore,  refers  to  standing  rather  than 
state ;  it  is  a  question  of  exposure  to  penalty,  not  of 
essential  character  or  moral  desert. 

For  example,  in  the  former  days  when  bank- 
ruptcy was  treated  as  a  crime  and  debtors  were 
imprisoned,  a  man's  debts  were  sometimes  dis- 
charged by  another,  and  he  was  consequently 
released.  He  might  have  been  careless  and  even 
dishonest  in  the  use  of  funds,  and  deserving  of 
punishment  as  a  moral  offender,  but  the  only  ques- 
tion before  the  court  would  be,  are  his  debts  paid? 
and  if  so  the  judicial  decision  would  be  that  he 
was  a  free  man. 

A  case  recently  occurred  in  British  Cofurts, 
where  a  man  was  sued  for  breach  of  promise.  It 
was  a  case  of  flagrant  wrong.  The  man  had  led 
the  woman  to  believe  that  he  would  marry  her, 
and  his  whole  course  with  her  justified  such  ex- 
pectation ;  but  no  proof  could  be  adduced  that 
any  explicit  pledge  had  been  given,  and  he  was 
acquitted,  although  he  was,  in  fact,  a  seducer  and 
betrayer. 

These  two  examples,  respectively,  illustrate  the 
effect  of  the  interposition  of  a  third  party,  or  of 
the  absence  of  technical  proof,  in  freeing  an  ac- 
cused party  from  the  penalty  of  law.  As  to  the 
effect  of  a  sovereign  act  of  clemency,  that  may 
be  seen  in  Pilate's  release  of  Barabbas,  or  in  any 
act  of  pardon  issued  by  proper  magisterial  author- 
ity. 


JUDICIAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  1$ 

We  have  thus  given  three  examples  of  judicial 
acquittal : 

1.  On  the  basis  of  a  technicality:  Breach  of 
promise. 

2.  On  the  basis  of  a  Sovereign  Act :  Pardon  of 
State  prisoners  as  on  the  accession  or  coronation 
of  a  King. 

3.  On  the  basis  of  human  interposition :  Bank- 
ruptcy. 

Illustrations  might  be  multiplied,  were  it  needful, 
to  show  this  principle,  but  these  suffice  to  make 
clear  that  a  judicial  decision  has  reference  only  to 
a  man's  attitude  before  the  law,  to  his  legal  stand- 
ing and  not  his  moral  state,  his  liability  or  expos- 
ure to  penalty,  and  not  his  inherent  character  and 
actual  desert ;  and  we  have  been  thus  careful  to 
define  the  term  judicial,  because  the  whole  system 
of  redemption  rests  upon  this  basis,  that  God  has 
made  a  provision  whereby  He  can  judicially  ac- 
quit a  guilty  sinner.  With  this  great  fact  and 
thought  the  whole  of  the  first  part  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans  is  mainly  occupied. 

First,  the  Apostle  proves  that  all  men.  Gentiles 
and  Jews  alike,  are  guilty  before  God.  With  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  light  and  revelation  of  His  will, 
they  have  all  alike  sinned  and  come  short  of  the 
Glory  of  God.  And  by  an  irresistible  argument 
he  reaches  this  conclusion,  that  every  mouth  is 
stopped  and  all  the  world  becomes  guilty  before 
God  (iii.  19).     There  is  no  man  who  is  not  a  sin- 


l6  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  f 

ncr,  and  a  sinner  without  excuse.  And  he  adds, 
"  Therefore,  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  there  shall 
no  flesh  be  justified  in  his  sight." 

Here  we  come  to  another  legal  term  which  it  is 
necessary  for  us  to  understand  :  Justified.  It  is  not 
equivalent  to  just,  but  rather  in  contrast  with  it. 
The  word,  just,  refers  to  character ;  justified,  to 
standing.  If  an  unjust  man  is  judicially  acquitted 
he  is,  so  far  as  the  law  is  concerned,  justified  ;  that 
is,  accounted  and  treated  as  just  or  righteous. 

The  Problem  of  Redemption  was  this ;  to  justify 
the  sinner  without  justifying  his  sin,  to  save  him 
from  legal  penalty  and  yet  save  God  from  compro- 
mise and  complicity  with  his  guilt.  Justice  de- 
manded the  exaction  of  penalty  in  the  interest  of 
law  and  perfect  government ;  mercy  yearned  to 
rescue  the  offender  in  the  interests  of  love  and 
divine  fatherhood.  The  problem  was  so  perplex- 
ing that  only  Infinite  Wisdom  and  grace  together 
were  equal  to  its  solution.  Now  that  it  is  solved, 
it  may  seem  simple,  as  it  is  easy  to  unlock  the 
most  complicated  lock  when  you  have  the  key  that 
belongs  to  it ;  but,  if  that  problem  had  been  origi- 
nally submitted  to  the  united  wisdom  of  all  human 
philosophers  and  wise  men,  it  would  still  remain 
unsolved. 

We  can  plainly  see  some  of  the  difficulties  that 
entered  into  the  case.  There  was  no  question  that 
all  men  were  sinners,  sinners  against  a  righteous 
God  and  a  perfect  law,  and  it  is  equally  evident 


JUDICIAL    UNION   WITH  CHRIST  1/ 

that  the  sanctions  of  government  must  be  main- 
tained ;  for  the  moment  that  the  certainty  that 
every  transgression  and  disobedience  will  receive 
its  just  recompense  of  reward  no  longer  exists, 
good  government  is  not  only  in  peril — it  has  abso- 
lutely ceased.  If  God  would  save  the  sinner  from 
his  just  punishment,  He  must  not  do  it  at  the 
expense  of  His  own  law  or  His  own  holiness.  Any 
judge  in  any  court  that  allows  laxity  in  adminis- 
tering justice  sets  a  premium  upon  crime.  Chief 
Justice  Hale  used  to  say,  "When  I  feel  myself 
swayed  by  the  impulses  of  mercy  toward  an 
offender,  let  me  remember  that  there  is  a  mercy 
due  unto  my  country." 

The  root  idea  of  the  gospel  is  that,  by  the  sub- 
stitution of  Christ  for  the  sinner  before  the  law,  in 
a  perfect  life  of  obedience  and  a  death  of  vicarious 
suffering,  the  ends  of  the  law  and  of  justice  were 
so  answered  as  that  God  could  judicially  acquit 
the  sinner  and  yet  not  tarnish  the  glory  of  his 
own  perfection.  To  get  hold  of  that  truth  is  the 
beginning  of  our  education  in  the  School  of 
Christ,  for  it  is  the  first  lesson  in  Redemption. 

We  can  all  see  that  several  ends  might  be 
answered  by  the  punishment  of  sin  in  the  person 
of  the  actual  transgressor.  For  example,  it  would 
serve  : 

1.  To  magnify  the  Law  and  make  it  honorable. 

2.  To  uphold  the  sanctions  of  perfect  govern- 
ment. 


1 8  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

3.  To  visit  just  penalty  upon  transgressors. 

4.  To  exhibit  the  essential  guilt  and  ill  desert 
of  sin. 

5.  To  warn  and  deter  other  offenders. 

6.  To  indicate  and  vindicate  the  character  of 
God. 

7.  To  discriminate  between  the  righteous  and 
the  wicked. 

Now  were  not  all  these  ends  met  in  the  atoning 
work  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ?  Transgression 
was  visited  with  a  penalty  which  also  exhibited 
the  deformity  and  enormity  of  sin  ;  and  an  eternal 
lesson  was  taught  the  universe  which  may,  to  an 
extent  now  inconceivable  by  us,  warn  and  deter 
other  creatures  of  God  from  evil-doing ;  and  it  has 
been  shown  that  the  Law  and  government  of  God 
will  be  upheld  at  any  cost,  and  that  in  the  great 
God  Himself  there  is  infinite  abhorrence  of  sin. 

Of  course  our  point  of  prospect  is  limited  ;  there 
may  be  other  purposes  answered  in  Christ's  sub- 
stitution of  which  we  have  now  neither  knowledge 
nor  notion  ;  but  we  can  see  enough  already  to  feel 
moved  like  Paul  himself  to  exclaim,  "  O  the  depth 
of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge 
of  God  !  How  unsearchable  are  His  Judgments 
and  His  ways  past  finding  out !  "  Rom.  xi.  ^2- 

The  fact,  declared  in  this  Epistle,  whether  or 
not  we  are  equal  to  the  divine  philosophy  of  it,  is, 
that  "now  the  Righteousness  of  God  apart  from 
the  law  is  manifested  ;  even  the  Righteousness  of 


JUDICIAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  1 9 

God  which  is  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  unto  all, 
and  upon  all  them  that  believe,"  etc.  Chap.  iii. 
21-26. 

Let  us  learn  this  by  heart,  for  it  is  the  very  sum 
and  substance  of  the  whole  mystery  of  Redemp- 
tion :  All  have  sinned  and  come  short  of  His 
glory,  and  therefore  there  is  no  hope  of  justifica- 
tion through  the  law,  which  can  only  make  us 
more  and  more  terribly  conscious  of  sin  and  guilt. 
But  God  has  set  forth  Christ  Jesus  to  be  a  Propi- 
tiation for  our  sins,  and  we  may  be  justified 
freely  by  His  grace  through  faith  in  His  blood. 

Now  notice  where  lies  the  emphasis  of  this  whole 
passage  :  God  hath  set  forth  his  Atoning  Son,  not 
to  declare  His  indifference  to  sin  and  His  laxity 
in  pardoning,  but  '■'to  declare  His  righteousness'' — 
even  in  the  remission  of  sin.  And  Paul  repeats 
this  that  it  may  more  deeply  engrave  itself  on  our 
minds— to  declare  I  say  at  this  time  His  Right- 
eousness :  that  He  might  be  just  and  the  Justifier  of 
him  which  believeth  in  Jesus.  In  one  word  the  pur- 
pose and  perfection  of  this  atoning  work  is  that  it 
makes  it  possible  for  a  Just  and  Holy  God  to  re- 
main perfectly  just  and  holy,  and  yet  not  only  par- 
don a  sinner  but  account  him  just,  that  is,  judi- 
cially acquit  him  and  give  him  the  standing  of  an 
innocent  party. 

The  natural  and  carnal  heart  wars  against  even 
the  grace  of  God,  too  proud  to  submit  to  being 
saved  in  God's  way,  because  all  boasting  is  ex- 


20  SHALL    IVE    CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

eluded.  And  so  men  find  fault  with  the  very  love 
that  seeks  to  find  provision  in  atonement.  The 
sinner  dares  to  criticise  grace  and  declares  that  it 
is  impossible  for  an  innocent  party  to  take  the 
place  of  the  guilty,  or  for  a  judicial  acquittal  to  be 
justly  pronounced  in  the  transgressor's  case.  And 
yet  the  principle  of  vicarious  substitution  is  not 
wholly  unknown  even  in  human  affairs.  It  is  a 
story,  told  of  Bronson  Alcott,  that,  when  obliged 
to  administer  a  bodily  chastisement  upon  a  dis- 
obedient school-boy,  his  older  brother  who  was 
present  asked  that  he  might  receive  the  flogging 
in  place  of  the  offender.  And  Professor  Alcott 
put  the  question  to  the  school,  whether  the  laws 
which  the  boys  had  themselves  framed  would  be 
sufficiently  honored  by  such  substitution,  and  they 
consented  ;  so  that  he  actually  whipped  the  older 
brother  in  place  of  the  younger  transgressor,  and 
with  a  profound  impression  on  the  school-boys 
both  as  to  the  dignity  of  Law  and  the  unselfishness 
of  Love  and  Mercy.  Whether  or  not  the  incident 
be  authentic,  it  serves  as  an  illustration. 

Enough  has  been  written  perhaps  to  introduce 
us  to  the  great  thought  first  presented  in  this 
sixth  chapter  of  Romans.  When  Paul  asks,  shall 
we  continue  in  sin  ?  his  first  reply  is,  How  shall  we 
that  have  died  to  sin  live  any  longer  therein  I 
Know  ye  not  that  so  many  of  us  as  were  baptized 
into  Jesus  Christ  were  baptized  into  His  death  ? 
Therefore    we  are    buried  with   him    by    baptism 


JUDICIAL    UNION-  WITH  CHRIST  21 

into  death.  Here  three  affirmations  meet  us  :  first 
we  have  died  to  sin  ;  second,  so  many  as  were  bap- 
tized into  Jesus  Christ  were  baptized  into  his  death  ; 
third,  by  such  baptism  we  were  buried  with  him  into 
death.  In  other  words,  there  has  been  on  the  part  of 
every  believer,  a  death  unto  sin  ;  and  a  burial  with 
Christ  in  the  sepulchre  ;  and  that  death  and  burial 
are  expressed,  confessed  and  symbolized  in  baptism. 
It  is  perfectly  plain  that  these  words  can  be 
understood  only  judicially.  We  are  all  of  us  con- 
scious of  no  such  actual  identification  with  Christ 
in  death  and  burial.  We  have  never  yet  really 
died  or  been  laid  in  the  grave.  The  only  way  to 
interpret  these  words  is  to  interpret  them,  not  as 
expressing  a  historical  fact,  but  a  judicial  act, 
something  counted  or  reckoned  or  imputed  to  our 
account  by  the  sovereign  mercy  and  grace  of  God. 
That  they  are  so  to  be  interpreted  is  plain  from 
the  whole  argument  preceding.  The  first  direct 
mention  of  a  judicial  righteousness  found  in  the 
New  Testament  is  in  the  opening  chapters  of  this 
Epistle.  The  germ  of  it  is  in  the  gospels  and  the 
Acts,  but  the  germ  comes  to  its  growth  and  plain 
exhibition  here,  as  we  have  seen  in  Romans  iii,  19- 
28.  There  we  are  plainly  taught  that  God  has 
devised  a  plan  for  human  redemption,  whereby 
He  reckons  the  believing  and  penitent  sinner  so 
one  with  Christ  that  His  obedience  is  imputed  to 
the  sinner  as  his  own  and  His  atoning  suffering  is 
reckoned  as  the  sinner's  own  expiation  or  satisfac- 


22  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

tion  of  the  legal  claim  and  penalty.  Here  we  are 
first  introduced  to  the  full  meaning  of  that  truth 
of  which  the  whole  Bible  is  at  once  the  miracle 
and  the  parable,  that  the  unity  of  a  believing  sin- 
ner with  an  atoning  Saviour  is  first  of  all  a.  Judicial 
one,  reckoned  such,  apart  from  all  our  legal  obedi- 
ence, and  our  undeserving  character,  by  the  infinite 
grace  of  God.  This  is  the  fundamental  fact  and 
truth  of  redemption,  and  faith  in  it  is  fundamental 
to  our  salvation.  The  believer  is  in  Jesus,  in  the 
sight  of  God,  and  is  so  judged  and  acquitted  as 
clothed  with  God's  righteousness. 

Paul,  moreover,  shows  that  this  doctrine  of 
Righteousness  imputed  on  account  of  faith,  is  no 
new  doctrine,  but  pervades  the  old  Covenant  as 
well  as  the  new,  for  he  refers  back  to  Abraham, 
the  father  of  the  faithful,  and  to  that  grand  verse 
in  Genesis  (xv.  6)  where  for  the  first  time  in  the 
Word  of  God  we  meet  these  three  words  in  con- 
junction— believed,  counted,  and  Righteousness. 
There  it  is  declared  that  Abraham  believed  in 
Jehovah  and  He  counted,  or  imputed  it  unto  him 
for  righteousness.  That  verse  becomes  the  key  to 
the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  to  the  Galatians, 
and  to  the  Epistle  of  James,  thus  linking  old  and 
new  Testaments  together.*  The  doctrine  thus 
found  in  the  "  Law  "  is  also  found  in  "  the  Psalms  " 
and  the  "Prophets."  f 

*  Rom.  iv.  1-5.     Gal.  ili.  6.    James  li.  23. 

t  Compare  Psalm  xxxii.  i,  2,  and  llabakkuk  ii.  4. 


JUDICIAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  23 

How  far  this  acquittal  of  the  sinner  is  judicial, 
based  on  the  ground  of  imputation,  not  actual 
righteousness  in  the  sinner,  is  plain  from  Rom.  iv. 
17 — where  we  are  told  that  God  quickeneth  the 
dead  and  calleth  those  things  which  be  not  as 
though  they  were.  God  in  justifying  sinners  actu- 
ally counts  them  righteous  when  they  are  not — does 
not  impute  sin  where  sin  actually  exists,  and  does 
impute  righteousness  where  it  does  not  exist. 
Abraham,  because  he  had  God's  promise^  counted 
as  done  what  seemed  impossible  as  well  as  unreal ; 
and  God  honored  such  faith  by  in  turn  counting 
as  existing  in  Abraham  a  righteousness  which  was 
not  his.  The  believer  counts  God  able  to  make 
him  alive  with  His  own  life  and  holy  with  His  own 
holiness.  God  in  turn  counts  the  sinner  now 
dead  in  sin  to  be  dead  to  sin  and  alive  to  God, 
counts  him  as  righteous,  and  then  proceeds  to 
make  him  what  he  at  first  only  reckons  him  to  be. 
Comp.  Romans  iv.  4-8,  17,  21,  22. 

This  plan  of  salvation  is  further  unfolded  in  the 
fifth  chapter.  Being  thus  justified  by  faith  we 
have  peace  with  God — all  controversy  between  us 
and  Him  is  forever  over — and  all  conflict  with 
His  perfect  law  and  holy  government.  We  were 
"  without  strength  "  to  help  ourselves  but  He  laid 
help  on  One  who  is  mighty  to  save.  We  were  sin- 
ners and  Christ  died  in  our  stead  ;  we  were  ene- 
mies and  by  his  death  the  enmity  was  done  away 
in  reconciliation  :  chap.  v.  6-8.     So  that,  where  sin 


24  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

abounded  and  reigned  unto  death,  grace  much 
more  abounds  and  reigns  unto  eternal  life.  How- 
ever we  may  quarrel  with  God's  plan  of  salvation 
there  is  no  doubt  about  the  plan  as  here  taught. 

What  pregnant  words  then  are  these  seven  ! 
"  Buried  with  Him  by  baptism  into  death." 

Burial  implies  death  and  death  implies  previous 
life. 

"  With  Him  "  implies  that  all  this  experience  of 
life,  death  and  burial  is  through  our  identification 
with  Him,  our  Lord  Jesus. 

"By  baptism  "  implies  that  the  act  whereby  this 
identification  is  both  symbolized  and  exhibited  is 
baptism. 

It  now  becomes  clear  in  what  sense  we  have 
died  to  sin — been  buried  with  Christ  and  baptized 
into  his  death — these  become  facts  by  d^  judicial  con- 
struction. Faith  makes  us  one  with  Jesus  Christ, 
so  that,  in  God's  sight,  what  is  literally  and  actu- 
ally true  of  Him,  becomes  judicially,  representa- 
tively, constructively,  true  of  us.  We  died  when 
he  died  ;  we  were  buried  when  he  was  buried  ; 
and  as  many  of  us  as  have  been  baptized  into 
Christ  have  been  baptized  into  His  death,  that  is, 
our  baptism  was  the  confession  of  our  identity 
with  Him,  and  our  symbolic  putting  on  of  Christ. 
As  the  mutual  clasping  of  hands  or  exchange  of 
rings  in  marriage  is  the  expression  and  confession 
and  symbolism  of  the  union  of  holy  wedlock  ;  as 
the  taking  off  of  the  shoe  was  the  confession  of  a 


JUDICIAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  2$ 

holy  place  whereon  one  must  walk  softly  and 
reverently  with  God  ;  as  the  bowing  of  the  body 
and  bending  of  the  knee  are  the  expression  of  wor- 
ship and  spiritual  prostration  before  God  ;  so,  to 
go  down  into  a  watery  grave,  as  Christ  did,  ex- 
presses our  faith  in  and  following  of  Him— in  His 
death  and  burial.* 

Thus  we  touch  the  very  heart  of  the  gospel 
mystery,  our  identity  by  faith  with  the  Son  of 
God.     And  we  touch  also  that  kindred  mystery  of 

*  It  is  surprising  what  a  consensus  of  opinion  there  is  on  this 
subject  among  the  most  devout  commentators,  see  Vaughan  on 
Romans,  pp.  117,  118. 

"All  christians  died  when  Christ  died.  That  is  the  date, 
for  all,  of  that  death  which  is  their  life.  But  the  personal  ap- 
propriation of  this  death  with  Christ  is  later  in  time.  It  comes 
only  with  faith.  Baptism  (in  case  of  a  penitent  and  believing 
convert)  was  the  moment  of  the  individual  incorporation.  PFe 
were  baptized  into  Christ,  Acts  2,  38. 

"  We  were  buried  then  with  him,  by  means  of  that  baptism, 
into  that  death.  In  other  words,  our  baptism  was  a  sort  of 
funeral  ;  a  solemn  act  of  consigning  us  to  that  death  of  Christ 
in  which  we  are  made  one  with  Him,  'and  with  this  object :  not 
that  we  might  remain  dead,  but  that  we  might  rise  with  Him 
from  death,  experience  (even  in  this  world)  the  power  of  His 
resurrection,  and  live  the  life  we  now  live  in  the  flesh  as  men 
who  have  already  died  and  risen  again." 

Also,  Handley  G.  C.  Moule,  on  Romans,  p.  164. 

"  For  if  we  became  vitally  connected.  He  with  us,  and  we 
with  Him,  by  the  likeness  of  His  death,  by  the  baptismal 
plunge,  symbol  and  seal  of  our  faith-union  with  the  buried 
sacrifice,  why  we  shall  be  vitally  connected  with  Him  by  the 
likeness  also  of  His  Resurrection,  by  the  baptismal  emergence, 


26  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

the  Son  of  Man.  He  was  Goel — the  Redeemer — 
and  a  Redeemer  must  not  only  have  power  to  re- 
deem, by  being  lifted  above  the  sin  and  corruption 
of  the  human  race,  but  must  have  the  righ.  to  re- 
deem by  being  let  down  to  the  level  of  the  race 
he  sought  to  save.  And  so,  in  redeeming  man, 
God  must  be  manifest  in  the  flesh.  He  must  have 
the  right  to  redeem  by  being  identified  with  our 
humanity.  The  Son  of  God  must  become  Son  of 
Man.  Hence  Christ  is  called  the  Second  Man  and 
the  Last  Adam,      i  Cor.  xv.  45,  47. 

Observe,  not  the  Second  Man  only,  as  in  verse 
47,  but  the  Last  Man  or  Adam — for  this  excludes 
any  succession.  We  can  understand  the  last  Adam 
only  by  understanding  \h^  first.  Who  was  the  first 
Adam  but  the  Judicial  Head  of  the  race  he  repre- 
sented? Whatever  may  be  our  theological  defini- 
tion of  our  relation  to  Adam,  the  practical  fact  is 
that  he  stood  for  us  and  when  he  fell,  we  fell.  He 
could  transmit  to  his  descendants  no  higher  nat- 
ure than  his  own,  and  so  it  is  significantly  said, 
that  he  begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness.  His  own 
nature  being  fallen,  he  transmitted  a  fallen  nature 
with  its  proneness  to  sin,  and  its  exposure  to  pains 

and  penalties.     As  he  had  lost  his  original  estate, 

•\ 

symbol  and  seal  of  our  faith«union  with  our  risen  Lord  and  so 
with  His  risen  power." 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  comments  and  the  paraphrase 
above  quoted,  are  from  two  of  the  leading  evangelical  clergy- 
men of  tlie  Anglican  Church. 


JUDICIAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  2/ 

his  children  could  inherit  only  his  moral  bank- 
ruptcy and  ruin  ;  and,  as  he  had  forfeited  his  right 
to  the  tree  of  life,  his  offspring  find  the  cherubim 
with  the  flaming  sword,  still  guarding  the  way, 
until  we  come  by  a  new  and  living  way,  through 
the  rent  vail  of  Christ's  crucified  body. 

Christ  is  therefore,  as  the  Last  Adam,  what  the 
first  Adam  was,  the  representative  of  the  race.  By 
blood  and  birth  we  were  all  identified  with  Adam ; 
by  the  faith  in  the  blood  that  atones  and  by  the 
new  birth  of  the  Spirit,  Ave  become  identified  with 
the  Last  Adam.  We  exchange  the  standing  of  sin- 
ners for  the  standing  of  saints,  the  bankruptcy  of 
sin  for  the  riches  of  holiness,  and  the  forfeited 
right  to  the  Tree  of  Life  for  the  full  and  eternal 
enjoyment  of  all  sacramental  privilege.  Rev. 
xxii.  1-14,  R.  V. 

The  most  precious  names  applied  to  Christ  are 
more  or  less  a  commentary  on  this  most  compre- 
hensive title,  the  Last  Adam.  He  is  the  Good 
Shepherd,  so  identified  with  the  sheep  that  by  his 
death  he  purchases  their  salvation  from  death. 
He  is  the  Vine,  so  identified  with  the  branches  that 
by  His  life  they  receive  life,  strength,  growth  and 
power  to  bear  fruit.  He  is  the  Foundation,  the 
very  basis,  so  identified  with  the  building  that 
every  believer  as  a  living  stone  both  rests  upon 
Him  and  is  cemented  to  Him  and  built  up  with 
Him  into  one  building  or  Temple  of  God  and  habi- 
tation of  God  through  the  Spirit.   He  is  the  Bride- 


28  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

groom,  so  one  with  the  bride  that  she  is  reckoned 
part  of  Him,  they  twain  being  one  flesh.  He  is  the 
Head  and  we  are  members  of  His  body  and  can- 
not be  separated  from  Him,  so  identified  with  Him 
that  all  life,  growth,  sustenance,  increase,  depend 
on  the  union. 

Hence  we  can  understand  how  God  reckons  us 
to  have  died  and  been  buried  when  He  died  and 
was  buried.  Judicially  it  is  true,  for  what  happens 
to  our  Great  Representative  is  true  of  all  whom  he 
represents.  We  are  not  surprised  then  when  we 
find,  on  the  careful  study  of  the  New  Testament, 
that  this  conception  of  our  Judicial  Union  with 
Christ  not  only  pervades  all  its  teaching  but  is  the 
interpreting  Key  to  His  life  ;  all  that  He  did  and 
suffered  as  the  Son  of  Man  was  typical  and  repre- 
sentative of  the  whole  body  of  believers.  In  this 
sixth  of  Romans  five  words  are  used,  all  of  them  rep- 
resentative :  "  died,"  "  buried,"  "  risen,"  "  planted," 
"  crucified."  All  are  declared  to  be  applicable  to 
us  as  believers.  And  when  we  turn  to  the  Epistle 
to  the  Colossians  this  same  thought  is  further  ex- 
panded.    Compare  Coloss.  ii.  10-13  '■>  i"-  i-4- 

Here  the  great  phrase  is  one  of  two  words  :  IN 
HIM.  He  is  the  Head,  and  what  is  true  of  the 
Head  is  true  of  the  body.  Here  seven  terms  are 
used  to  express  this  unity  or  identity — in  Him  and 
with  Him  it  is  declared  that  we  are  circumcised, 
buried,  risen,  quickened,  seated,  our  life  /lid  in  God 
and  to  appear  when  He  appears. 


JUDICIAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  29 

These  seven  phrases  suggest  that  His  whole  life 
as  Son  of  Man  and  Last  Adam,  was  representative 
and  typical  ;  and  that  its  full  explanation  can  be 
found  only  in  its  representative  character  ;  that  is, 
every  great  event  or  experience  had  reference  to 
the  body  of  which  He  is  Head-the  race  of  which 
He  is  the  Last  Adam. 

In  that  career  of  Christ  there  are  at  least  fifteen 
grand  and  salient  points :  His  Birth  or  Incarnation, 
Presentation  andCircumcision,  Baptism,  Anomtmg, 

Temptation,  Passion,   Crucifixion,  Burial,  Quick- 
ening,   Resurrection,   Forty   days    of    Resurrec- 
tion  Walk,  Ascension,  Session  at  God's  right  hand 
and  Hidden  Life  of  Intercession,  and  fi^f  Reap- 
pearance.    Every  one  of  these  is  a  typical  fact  as 
will  appear  if  we  examine  scripture.     Hence  the 
force  of  those   constantly  recurring  phrases:   in 
Him  by  Him,  for  Him,  through  Him,  with  Him.  etc. 
His  miraculous   Birth  was  a  type   of  our  new 
birth  from  above  whereby  we  enter  the  kingdom, 
not  by  a  natural,  but  by  a  supernatural  process. 

His  circumcision,  the  type  of  the  putting  off 
the  body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh.      Col.  11.  11. 

His  presentation  in  the  temple,  of  our  self-offer- 
ing to  God.    Rom.  xii.  i. 

His  Baptism,  of  our  Confession  of  Him  as  Sav- 
iour  and  Lord-the  answer  of  a  good  conscience 
toward  God.     i  Pet.  iii.  21. 

His  Temptation,  of  our  Conflict  with  and  Con- 
quest  over  Satan.     Jas.  iv.  7  ;  i  John  iv.  4. 


30  SHALL    WE  CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

His  Anointing,  of  our  Reception  of  Holy  Ghost 
indwelling  and  power,     i  John  ii.  20-27. 

His  Passion,  of  our  entire  Surrender  to  the  Will 
of  God  even  unto  death.     Heb.  xii.  4,  5. 

His  Crucifixion,  of  our  death  unto  the  penalty 
and  guilt  of  sin.     Gal.  ii.  20. 

His  Burial,  of  our  leaving  in  His  sepulchre  all 
corruption  of  the  old  man.     Col.  iii.  9. 

His  Resurrection,  of  our  rising  into  newness  of 
life.     Col.  iii.  i. 

His  Quickening,  of  our  being  pervaded  by  the 
life  and  power  of  God.     Col.  ii.  13. 

His  Forty  Days  of  resurrection  life  and  power 
correspond  to  our  complete  walk  with  God  after 
regeneration.     Rom.  viii.  4,  5. 

His  Session  at  God's  Right  Hand,  to  our  pres- 
ent life  of  privilege.     Col.  iii.  i,  2. 

His  Hidden  Life,  to  our  secret  incorporation 
unto  Him.     Col.  iii.  3. 

His  Intercession,  to  our  identity  with  him  in 
mediation.     Heb.  x.  19-21. 

His  Coming  Again,  to  our  final  resurrection  and 
revelation.     Coloss.  iii.  4. 

This  analogy  might  be  indefinitely  expanded  and 
illustrated. 

Note,  for  instance,  the  main  incidents  of  His 
supernatural  birth;  "the  Holy  Ghost  shall  come 
upon  thee  and  the  power  of  the  highest  shall  over- 
shadow thee  ;  therefore  also  that  holy  thing  which 
shall  be  born  of  thee  shall  be  called  the  Son  of 


JUDICIAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  3 1 

God."  And  Mary's  Answer  :  "  Behold  the  hand- 
maid of  the  Lord  !  be  it  unto  me  according  to  thy 
Word."  In  His  Temptation  the  Prince  of  this 
World  is  Judged,  and  Satan  bruised  under  our  feet. 
Rom.  xvi.  20.  Anointing,  poured  on  the  Head, 
reaching  all  the  members  and  to  the  skirts  of  the 
robe.     Psalm  cxxxiii. 

To  sum  up  then:  In  Him  the  believer  finds  him- 
self born  anew  in  a  supernatural  birth,  realizes 
complete  self-offering,  and  renunciation  of  sin,  con- 
fessing his  faith,  receiving  the  anointing  of  the 
Spirit,  meeting  and  overcoming  the  Tempter,  bear- 
ing his  sin  in  expiation  of  penalty  ;  his  old  man  is 
buried  and  left  in  the  grave,  the  new  man  assumed, 
the  whole  inner  life  quickened  ;  a  perpetual  walking 
with  God,  an  ascension  above  earth  and  a  session 
at  God's  right  hand,  a  hidden  life  of  privilege  and 
intercession,  losing  even  life  in  unselfish  ministry, 
and  a  coming  manifestation  in  glory  and  complete 
vindication  and  reward,  become  his. 

This  being  the  foundation  truth  of  the  whole 
scheme  of  Redemption,  the  two  sacraments — all 
Christ  left  behind  as  memorials — both  represent 
it :  Baptism  is  our  entering  into  Christ. 

The  Lord's  Supper,  His  Enteritig  unto  us. 


II 

VITAL    UNION     WITH    CHRIST 

"  That,  Like  as  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the 
dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  even  so  we  also 
should  walk  in  newness  of  Life."  Chap.  vi.  4-1 1. 
Comp.  2  Cor.  xiii.  4. 

From  identification  with  Jesus  in  Death  and 
Burial,  we  pass  now  rapidly  to  identification  with 
him  by  Quickening  and  Resurrection.  In  this 
section  of  the  argument,  again  we  meet  certain 
significant  phrases  on  which  the  argument  turns ; 
the  meaning  of  which  we  need  to  apprehend  and 
master,  even  to  the  nicest  shades  of  difference 
and  distinction,  for  the  Divine  Artist  used  no 
colors,  or  shades  of  color,  without  discrimination  : 

1.  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the 
glory  of  the  Father. 

2.  Planted  together  in  the  likeness  of  His  resur- 
rection. 

3.  Our  old  man  is  crucified  with  Him  that  the 
body  of  sin  jnight  be  destroyed. 

4.  That  henceforth  we  should  not  serve  sin. 


VITAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  33 

5.  We  believe  that  we  shall  also  live  with  Him. 

6.  Death  hath  no  more  dominion  over  Him. 

7.  In  that  He  liveth,  He  liveth  unto  God. 

Here  are  six  or  seven  phrases,  no  two  alike,  all 
expressing  some  new  phase  of  our  oneness  with 
the  Risen  Lord,  as  before  with  the  Crucified  Christ. 
As  nearly  as  we  can  discern  the  nice  distinctions, 
they  may  be  indicated  as  follows  : 

1.  The  believer  is  in  Christ  divinely  quickened, 
or  made  alive ; 

2.  He  is  permitted  to  share  in  the  likeness  of 
His  Resurrection. 

3.  The  Body  of  Sin  is  to  be  regarded  as  de- 
stroyed in  His  grave. 

4.  Henceforth  the  believer  is  not  to  be  the  slave 
of  sin. 

5.  Out  of  Christ's  grave  is  to  come  a  new  Life 
with  Him. 

6.  Resurrection  itnplies  deliverance  from  the 
dominion  of  death. 

7.  Our  new  Life  is  to  bft  a  Life  unto  God. 
Taken    together,  these  thoughts   constitute    a 

body  of  truth  that  is  so  wondrously  complete,  that 
nothing  can  be  added  to  it,  and  so  divinely  uplift- 
ing that  it  should  make  continuance  in  sinning  im- 
possible. Let  us  seek  to  get  at  least  a  glimpse  of  the 
meaning  of  some  of  these  marvellous  expressions. 

I.  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the 
glory  of  the  Father. 

The  grandeur  of  Christ's  Resurrection,  both  in 


34  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

itself  and  as  a  type  of  the  believer's  new  life,  no 
mortal  mind  has  ever  yet  conceived.  It  is  made  in 
the  New  Testament,  both  the  crowning  miracle 
of  all  miracles  and  the  crowning  proof  of  Christ's 
deity,  while  it  becomes  henceforth  God's  new  unit 
of  measurement  as  to  what  He  can  and  will  ac- 
complish in  and  for  the  believer. 

It  is  the  crowning  miracle,  for  it  embraces  in  itself 
all  others.  We  see  Him  giving  sight  to  blind  eyes, 
hearing  to  deaf  ears,  speech  to  the  dumb,  power 
to  palsied  limbs  and  withered  members  :  have  we 
ever  thought  how  in  his  own  Resurrection  all  these 
were  included  ?  The  eyes  that  were  blind,  the  ears 
that  were  deaf,  the  limbs  that  were  palsied  and 
withered  in  death,  received  respectively  sight,  hear- 
ing, strength,  and  health  in  one  simultaneous  and 
supreme  act.  It  was  the  crowning  proof,  sign, 
and  seal  of  His  Messiahship,  in  which  He  was 
declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  with  power  by  the 
Spirit  of  Holiness.  Rom.  i.  4.  Consider  how  he 
was  thrice  dead — dead  by  crucifixion,  with  pierced 
hands  and  feet ;  dead  by  the  spear  thrust,  which 
cleft  his  heart  in  twain  ;  dead  by  the  temporary 
enswathement,  which  wrapped  even  his  head  and 
excluded  breath  even  had  he  not  otherwise  been 
dead.  Was  there  ever  a  more  stupendous  exhibi- 
tion of  divine  power,  attesting  God's  own  direct 
working,  than  when  that  dead  body  awoke,  arose, 
emerged  from  the  embalming  cloths — leaving 
them  behind  as  a  butterfly  sloughs  off  its  cocoon 


VITAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  35 

—got  up  from  its  bed  of  stone,  and  stood  and 
walked,  and  went  forth  from  the  sepulchre  ? 

And   now,  henceforth,  whenever    the   believer 
would  know  how  much  God  is  able  and  willing  to 
accomplish  for  him,  in  answer  to  the  prayer  of 
faith,  and  because  of  his  identification  by  faith 
with  the  crucified  and  risen  Saviour,  he  has  only 
to  consider  what  God  wrought  in  Christ  when  he 
raised  him  from  the  dead,  and  set  him  at  his  own 
right  hand  in  the  heavenlies.     In  the  Old  Testa- 
ment God's  unit  of  measurement  is  what  He  did 
for  his  people  in  bringing  them  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt.   Micah  vii.  15.     That  deliverance  included 
at  least  three  things,  all  miracles  of  power  and 
grace  :  first,   the  exemption   from   death,  of  the 
bloodstained  houses ;  second,  the  defiance  of  the 
law  of  gravitation,  in  making  the  waters  a  wall ; 
and  third,  the  overthrow  of  all  foes  in  the  Red  Sea. 
In  the  New  Testament,  the  unit  of  measurement 
is  a  new  one,  according   to  the  working  of  His 
mighty  power,  which  He  wrought  in  Christ  when 
He  raised  Him  from  the  dead,  etc.     Eph.  i.  20. 

This  again  includes  three  things,  singularly  cor- 
respondent to  the  other  three— exemption  from 
wrath  on  the  part  of  every  blood-sprinkled  soul  ; 
defiance  of  gravitation  in  the  ascension  of  Christ, 
and  overthrow  of  all  hostile  principalities  and 
powers,  in  Christ's  session  at  God's  Right  Hand. 
When  we  look  at  the  power  of  sin  over  us  and 

ask  how  it  can  be  broken  ;  when,  in  despair  of  all 


36  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

self-help  and  self-conquest,  we  cry  out,  who  shall 
deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?  the  answer 
is,  Trust  in  the  living  God  who  raised  Him  from 
the  dead.  The  same  power  that  wrought  in  Christ 
works  in  every  new  born  soul.  The  struggles  of 
the  unbeliever  against  sin  are  comparatively  fruit- 
less and  hopeless,  and  the  efforts  even  of  the 
regenerate  man  are  unsuccessful,  so  long  as  he 
attempts  to  vanquish  sin  by  his  own  resolve  or 
power.  But  the  believer  must  remember  that  in 
the  Resurrection  of  Christ  he  receives  life,  and 
life  stands  for  vitality,  ability,  energy,  power. 
Before,  he  was  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  and 
death  means  helplessness,  powerlessness,  despair. 
In  Christ  he  can  do  all  things,  while  without  Christ 
he  can  do  nothing.  The  moment  he  understands 
and  realizes  his  new  gift  of  life  in  Christ's  Resur- 
rection he  knows  that,  while  so  one  with  Jesus,  the 
same  works  which  were  possible  to  Christ  become 
possible  to  himself.  This  is  the  wonderful  truth 
taught  throughout  the  New  Testament. 

An  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  fa- 
miliar fact  about  the  magnet.  It  has  a  mysterious 
life,  the  power  of  which  can  be  communicated. 
For  example,  if  you  take  a  piece  of  common  iron 
and  allow  it  to  be  attracted  to  the  magnet,  it  be- 
comes attached  to  it,  becomes  itself  magnetic,  and 
while  so  held  fast  by  the  magnet  attracts  the  iron 
or  steel  filings  as  the  magnet  does,  but  when  sev- 
ered   from   the    magnet    has    no   such   attractive 


VITAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  37 

power.  "  Apart  from  me,  "  says  Christ,  "  ye  can 
do  nothing."  But  the  moment  Christ  lays  hold 
upon  you,  and  His  life  is  imparted  to  you.  His 
works  become  possible  to  you. 

We  have  found  a  second  phrase  here  which 
teaches  us  that  the  believer  shares  in  the  likeness 
of  his  resurrection.  This,  of  course,  finds  its 
completeness  only  in  the  final  resurrection  of 
saints.  Yet,  as  Paul  is  here  treating  of  our  non- 
continuance  in  sin,  there  must  be  a  larger  sense  in 
which  we  are  now  permitted  to  share  in  the  simil- 
itude of  His  resurrection.  Paul,  writing  to  the 
Philippians,  expresses  his  willingness  to  renounce 
all  gains  as  losses,  and  all  advantage  as  refuse, 
that  he  may  know  the  power  of  Christ's  resur- 
rection. What  is  that  power,  but  the  power  over 
deaths  the  power  that  defies  corruption,  that  re- 
leases from  the  bondage  of  death,  and  sets  the 
dead  free  to  live  and  move  and  have  being?  And 
what  is  the  power  of  Christ's  resurrection,  as 
now  enjoyed  by  the  true  believer,  but  the  power 
over  sin,  which  is  death,  the  power  that  defies  cor- 
ruption longer  to  hold  us  in  bondage,  and  makes 
us  free  men  in  Christ  Jesus,  with  capacity  to  serve 
God  in  newness  of  life  ? 

Resurrection  was  to  Christ  deliverance  from  all 
further  liability  or  possibility  of  death  ;  death 
hath  no  more  dominion  over  Him.  And  this  con- 
stitutes our  Risen  Saviour  the  first  begotten  from 
the  dead,  and  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept. 


38  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

There  had  been  other  revivals,  resuscitations  or 
restorations  of  the  dead,  but  never  a  resurrection 
proper  till  He  rose  ;  for  all  others,  such  as  Jairus's 
daughter,  the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain,  and  Laz- 
arus, rose  to  die  again — but  Christ,  being  raised 
from  the  dead,  dieth  no  more. 

We  ought  to  get  hold  of  this  great  thought,  for 
the  thought  itself  is  a  deliverance,  that  by  faith 
united  to  Christ,  I  now  partake  in  the  power  and 
privilege  of  His  resurrection.  The  spirit  of  Holi- 
ness who  raised  Him  from  the  dead,  henceforth 
to  be  free  of  all  dominion  of  death,  dwells  in  and 
works  in  me  as  a  believer,  and  assures  to  me  de- 
liverance from  the  power  of  the  sin  that  works 
death  and  is  death. 

How  strongly  does  the  Apostle  state  the  pur- 
pose and  effect  of  such  identity  with  the  Risen 
Lord,  that  the  body  of  sin  should  be  destroyed, 
that  henceforth  we  should  not  serve  sin.  This 
language  cannot  well  be  mistaken.  We  are  to  re- 
gard the  Body  of  Sin  as  destroyed  in  the  grave  of 
Christ,  and  left  behind  there,  that  henceforth  we 
should  be  free  from  its  dominion,  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  corruption,  no  more  to  be  slaves 
of  sin. 

We  are  therefore  to  think  of  Christ's  death  as 
our  death,  His  burial  as  our  burial,  His  rising  as 
our  rising.  We  go  into  the  grave  with  Him  but 
not  to  stay  there.  His  grave  is  the  place  of  our 
burial,  as  the  ground  is  the  grave  of  the  seed  ;  but 


VITAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  39 

burial  is  in  order  to  resurrection,  as  the  burial  of 
the  seed  is  in  order  to  germination  and  harvest. 

Andrew  Murray  has  beautifully  said  that  the 
believer  is  to  remember  that  the  very  roots  of 
his  being  are  in  Christ's  grave.  The  oldest  oak 
stands  in  the  grave  of  the  acorn  from  which  it 
sprang,  and  to  remove  it  is  to  destroy  it.  How- 
ever massive  the  tree,  it  never  loses  its  connec- 
tion with  that  buried  seed.  In  the  field  of  wheat, 
with  its  millions  of  blades,  every  waving  stem, 
with  its  full  grown  ear,  is  rooted  in  the  grave  of 
the  kernel  of  wheat  that  was  buried,  that  fell  into 
the  ground  and  died  that  it  should  not  abide  alone, 
but  bring  forth  much  fruit.  And  the  whole  proc- 
ess of  tilling  the  soil,  what  is  it  but  making  ready 
the  grave  by  the  plough — then  burying  the  seed  in 
the  sowing,  and  then  by  the  harrow  filling  in  the 
grave  ? 

But  the  grain  of  wheat,  or  the  acorn,  does  not 
fall  into  its  grave  simply  to  die,  but  to  bring  forth 
fruit,  to  live  anew  in  the  oak  or  the  wheat  crop. 
And  we  are  buried  with  Christ  in  order  that  we 
may  live  with  him.  The  literal  burial  comes  after 
the  literal  death,  and  the  literal  resurrection  of 
the  body  waits  for  Christ's  coming.  But  the  more 
important  spiritual  fact  here  set  forth,  is  the  pres- 
ent participation  with  Christ  in  the  power  of  His 
rising,  that  even  now,  v/e,  by  the  same  Spirit,  come 
forth  in  resurrection  power,  to  walk  with  Him  in 
newness  of  life. 


40  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

This  new  life  by  the  power  of  God  is  to  be  a 
new  life  unto  God.  Hitherto,  the  life  was  self- 
centred,  now  God-centred.  There  is  a  remark- 
able expression  used  elsewhere  by  Paul :  for  of  Him 
and  to  Him  and  through  Him  are  all  things  (Rom. 
xi.  36),  i.e.,  God,  the  source  of  all,  the  goal  of  all, 
the  channel  of  all.  That  is  the  law  of  the  new  life — 
but,  of  all  unrenewed  life  we  must  say,  of  self  and 
to  self  and  through  self  are  all  things.  Self  is  the 
source  whence  it  springs,  the  great  sea  into  which 
it  finally  empties,  and  the  channel  through  which 
it  flows.  The  new  life  will  never  be  unto  God, 
except  so  far  as  it  is  of  God  ;  nor  will  it  ever  be 
through  God,  except  so  far  as  it  is  both  of  Him 
and  to  Him. 

Holy  living  becomes  possible  to  us  only  in 
proportion,  therefore,  as  we  keep  constantly  in 
mind  that  the  power  to  live  a  new  life  of  holi- 
ness is  wholly  of  God :  that  it  is  not  found  in  self 
culture,  in  education  and  training,  in  the  most 
honest  purpose  or  effort,  in  the  most  helpful  and 
healthful  surroundings,  but  solely  in  an  impartation 
from  Gody  in  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  of  Life,  power, 
holiness,  the  same  that  raised  up  the  Lord  Jesus  ; 
and,  that  until  that  Spirit  animates  and  vitalizes 
us,  we  are  as  helpless  to  live  a  holy  life  as  Christ's 
dead  body  was  to  move.  Not  until  we  realize  this 
can  we  ever  find  the  power  of  Christ's  Resurrec- 
tion in  ourselves. 

And  so  we  must  keep  as  constantly  before  us 


VITAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  41 

the  thought  that  only  as  this  divinely  given  life 
finds  its  one  final  object  and  goal  in  God,  can  it  find 
its  true  direction  or  develop  its  true  energy.    You 
cannot  turn  a  stream  of  water  whither  you  will. 
Water  flows  freely  only  in  its  natural  channel.  Run 
it  into  desert  sands  and  it  may  be  absorbed  and  sink 
out  of  sight.     Run  it  into  the  midst  of  a  bog  and 
it  stagnates  in  a  swamp.    Run  it  among  rocks  and 
stones  and  it  winds  in  and  out  divided  into  many 
streams,   perhaps   diverted   into   many   channels. 
The  new  life,  turned  into  the  quicksands  of  selfish 
gratification,  or  the  swamp  of  religious  stagnation, 
or  the  rocks  and  stones  of  a  divided  and  worldly 
heart,  is  perverted,  sacrificed,  lost.     But  give  it 
God  as  its  one  supreme  aim  and  end,  and  it  moves 
like  a  mighty  and  accumulating  river.     A  holy  life 
comes  from  God,  rests  in  God,  and  flows  through 
Him  as  its  divine   channel.     Everything   about 
it  is  holy— its  source,  its  course,  its  direction,  its 

end. 

There  are  a  few  thoughts  suggested,  most  prac- 
tical and  pertinent,  such  as  these  : 

Our  vital  connection  with  Christ  is  an  endow- 
ment of  Power. 

Our  vital  union  with  Him  demands  perpetual 
watchfulness,  lest  it  be  hindered  or  injured.  The 
Endowment  is  also  an  Entrustment. 

I.  This  vital  union  with  Christ  implies  and  is 
the  Endowment  of  Power.  Holy  Living  is  a  su- 
pernatural art  and  cannot  be  understood  by  the 


42  SHALL    WE    CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

natural  man,  nor  enjoyed  by  the  carnal  man.  We 
are  to  think  of  ourselves  as  the  subjects  of  mirac- 
ulous working,  as  much  as  when  the  blind  received 
sight,  the  deaf,  hearing  ;  the  lepers,  cleansing  ;  the 
lame,  power  to  walk  ;  or  the  dead,  life.  It  seems 
incredible  to  the  unconverted  man  that,  in  a  mo- 
ment of  time,  and  simply  by  turning  unto  God, 
and  receiving  Jesus  as  a  Saviour,  he  may  not  only 
be  forgiven,  but  enabled  to  live  a  new  life.  It  often 
seems  to  him  like  mockery,  because  he  does  not 
understand  that  all  his  previous  efforts  to  live  a 
better  life  have  been  the  vain  struggles  of  a  man 
without  power,  as  though  a  palsied  man  should 
attempt  to  walk  and  carry  his  bed. 

Peter's  walking  on  the  water  illustrates  both 
man's  weakness  and  strength.  Our  Lord  appeared 
walking  the  waves  of  a  stormy  sea,  far  enough  off 
for  it  to  seem  a  ghostly  illusion,  yet  near  enough  to 
be  heard  by  those  in  the  boat,  perhaps  two  or  three 
hundred  yards  away.  When  he  bade  Peter  "  come  " 
unto  Him,  on  the  water,  the  disciple  boldly  stepped 
out  of  the  boat  and  actually  walked  on  the  water^ 
and  must  have  gone  within  arm's  length  of  Jesus, 
when,  beginning  to  sink,  he  cried.  Lord  save,  I 
perish.  For  Jesus  had  only  to  put  forth  his  hand, 
to  catch  the  sinking  man,  and  they  walked  back 
to  the  boat  together.  Now  observe,  while  Peter 
kept  his  eye  on  the  Lord  Jesus,  he  did  just  what 
Jesus  did,  he  walked  on  the  water.  But  the 
moment  he  got  his  eye  off  from  Him,  and  thought 


VITAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  43 

of  the  boisterous  wind  and  tossing  waves,  he  lost 
power  and  began  to  sink. 

Holy  living  is  as  much  a  miracle  to  the  natural 
man  as  is  walking  on  the  water,  which  presents  no 
proper  foundation  for  our  feet,  having  neither 
stability  nor  equilibrium,  and  especially  when 
tossed  up  and  down  and  driven  to  and  fro  by  the 
wind.  The  secret  of  Peter's  power  to  triumph 
over  what  was  otherwise  impossible  was  this,  that 
he  was  in  touch  with  Jesus  by  faith  and  had  Christ's 
power  in  him  :  and  the  secret  of  his  sinking  is 
equally  plain — he  lost  touch  with  Jesus  and  be- 
came as  any  other  impotent  mortal,  unable  to  cope 
with  the  difficulties  of  his  situation.  But  what  we 
need  now  to  emphasize  is  that  one  moment  he  was 
strong  to  do  the  impossible,  and  the  next  moment 
utterly  weak  and  sinking.  So  a  human  soul  can  be 
strong  one  moment  and  weak  the  next,  omnipotent 
or  impotent,  and  it  all  depends  on  the  touch  of  faith 
which  brings  virtue  out  of  Christ. 

An  incident  in  my  own  pastorate  occurs  to  my 
mind.  A  young  man,  a  plumber  by  trade,  came 
into  my  house  early  one  morning,  to  beg  my 
intervention  in  persuading  his  wife  not  to  leave 
him,  as  she  threatened  to  do,  on  account  of  drink, 
I  knew  something  of  her  trials,  and  did  not  believe 
such  mediation  would  effect  any  result ;  in  fact,  I 
doubted  whether  I  ought  to  attempt  to  dissuade 
her  from  her  purpose,  for,  when  drunk,  her  hus- 
band was  a  brute  and  her  life  was  sometimes  in 


44  SHALL    IVE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

peril.  Even  when  he  sought  me,  he  was  but  half 
sober,  just  recovering  from  a  debauch.  I  begged 
him  to  make  separation  unnecessary  by  letting 
drink  alone — but  he  answered  that  he  could  not 
do  it — that  he  had  made  trial  again  and  again, 
succeeding  for  a  few  days,  but  in  every  case 
returning  again  to  his  cups.  He  was  a  church 
member,  but  I  told  him  frankly  that  I  felt  con- 
vinced he  knew  nothing  of  the  grace  and  power  of 
God  ;  that  the  troubles  that  drive  a  true  child  of 
God  to  his  knees,  only  drove  him  to  his  cups;  and 
I  set  before  him  the  great  truth  and  fact,  that  the 
momenta  penitent  sinner  truly  lays  hold  of  Christ, 
all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth. 

This  Endowment  of  Life  is,  however,  to  be  es- 
teemed as  a  delicate  and  precious  gift  to  be  guarded 
from  injury — an  entrustment. 

Here  we  strike  one  of  the  most  important  and 
awful  truths  of  scripture,  generally  overlooked. 
In  this  chapter  we  find  frequent  warnings  against 
continuance  in  sin,  as  destructive  not  only  of  the 
power  of  the  new  life,  but  of  its  existence.  And 
Paul  is  writing  not  to,  or  of,  unbelievers ;  he  is 
addressing  Saints.  Yet  hearken  to  his  words  of 
warning  : 

*'  Neither  yield  ye  your  members,  as  instruments 
of  unrighteousness  unto  sin,"  and  hear  his  reason  : 
"  Know  ye  not  that  to  whom  ye  yield  yourselves 
servants  to  obey,  his  servants  ye  are  to  whom  ye 
obey  whether  of  sin  urito  death  or  of  obedience  unto 


VITAL    UNION-  WITH  CHRIST  45 

righteousness?"     That  is-if  a  disciple  yields  his 
^L.r.  as  instruments  of  unrighteousness  he  . 
yielding  to  sin,  and  sin  is  unto  death.     Again  he 
slys  "the  fruit  and  end  of  those  things  is  death, 
and  again  "  the  wages  of  sin  is  death."     Here  is  a 
threefold  warning  addressed  to  the  disciple  against 
going  on  in  sin-sin  leads  to  death,  ends  in  death 
!nd  is  paid  its  wages  in  death.     Further  on    m 
chapter   viii.,   he  adds   that  the   carnal  mind    is 

"^^Life  has  its  laws  and  conditions,  and  being  the 
most  precious  gift  of  God,  must  be  correspond- 
ingly   cherished,   nourished    and    guarded      The 
most  precious  things  are  the  most  susceptible  of 
injury  always;  worthless  weeds  it  is  virtually  im- 
possible to  exterminate-valuable  plants  it  requires 
constant  care  to  keep  alive.     God  gives  us  animal 
life-it  must  be  fed,  and  in  many  ways  protected. 
Food  and  sleep,  air  and  exercise,  rest  and  recrea- 
tion are  conditions  of  health.     Neglect  your  an  - 
mal  life  for  a  day  and  you  may  fatally  harm  it.     If 
you  have  a  very  rare  exotic  in  your  nursery,  how 
you  protect  it  from  the  ravages  of  insects,  from 
wintry  cold,  and  from  direct  violence.   Suppose  you 
■    found  some  careless  boy  cutting  into  its  stock  with 
a  mischievous  hatchet,  would  you  stand  by  and 
let  such  injury  go  forward  ?  .       .  -        a. 

Every  sin  tends  to  death  and  if  persisted  in  ends 
in  Death  as  its  goal  and  fruit.  What  is  f-^^^'  ^^ 
means,  in  the  new  Testament,  separation  from  God, 


46     SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

loss  of  fellowship,  conscious  condemnation  and 
decay  of  spiritual  sensibility.  You  may  have  been 
for  years  a  professing  disciple,  and  have  walked 
with  God,  but  I  defy  you  to  commit  any  deliberate 
sin  against  God  without  at  once  finding  death  at 
work  in  you.  The  moment  you  sin  you  fall,  you 
lose  the  sense  of  God's  favor,  you  interrupt  your 
fellowship  with  Him ;  you  come  into  conscious 
condemnation,  and  you  dull  and  deaden  your  own 
sensibilities  to  the  truth  and  the  touch  of  God. 

It  is  impossible  to  sin  with  immunity  from 
spiritual  decay  and  decline,  or  impunity  as  to 
natural  penalties. 


Ill 

PRACTICAL    UNION    WITH   CHRIST 

A  WORD  may  here  be  said  with  regard  to  Perfec- 
tion. Many  have  a  dread  of  any  teaching  which,  in 
their  judgment,  savors  of  encouraging  the  notion 
that  sinless  perfection  is  attainable  in  this  world. 

1.  Let  us  remember  the  two  senses  in  which  the 
ynoxd  perfect  is  used  in  scripture. 

2.  Let  us  remember  that  even  the  error  of  be- 
lieving one's  self  perfect  is  scarcely  so  bad  as  the 
practical  error  of  being  contented  with  habits  of 
sinning. 

"  Likewise  Reckon  ye  also  yourselves  to  be  dead 
indeed  unto  sin  but  alive  unto  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord."  _ 

Up  to  this  point  in  the  argument  we  have  been 
occupied  with  the  believer's  union  with  Christ  as 
God  has  planned  and  purposed  it.  We  have  seen 
how,  in  God's  eyes  and  in  the  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion, faith  identifies  us  with  the  Lord  Jesus  in 
death,  burial  and  resurrection  ;  and  that  the  pur- 
pose of  all  this  is  that  we  should  no  longer  serve 


48  SHALL    IV E    CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

Sin  as  a  master,  but  walk  in  newness  of  life,  living 
in  Christ  and  with  Christ  unto  God,  as  those  over 
whom  Sin  and  Death  no  longer  hold  mastery. 

And  now,  in  one  word,  Paul  turns  our  thought 
to  the  practical  aspect  of  this  union  with  Christ. 
What  does  all  this  mean,  and  how  is  this  truth  to 
be  transmuted  into  life  ?  How  is  the  believer  to 
reduce  this  theory  to  practice  ?     Psalm  i.  John  xv. 

The  answer  begins  now  to  be  given,  and  is 
found  in  one  word.  Reckon — the  equivalent  of 
another  word.  Count,  which  occurs  first  in  Genesis, 
XV.  6.  "  Abram  believed  in  the  Lord  and  it  was 
counted  unto  him  for  righteousness.  '  Just  what 
he  did  which  was  thus  counted  as  righteousness 
is  plain  from  the  exact  meaning  of  the  original 
word — Abram  ame?ied  God.  When  God  said  a 
thing,  though  it  was  humanly  impossible,  Abram 
said  "Amen,  it  shall  be  so,  even  as  God  hath  said." 
This  act  of  faith,  this  saying  Amen  to  God  is  else- 
where described  thus  :  Romans  iv.  3,  17-22.  See 
whole  passage.  Compare  with  this  Hebrews  xi. 
8-19. 

In  these  passages  occur  several  phrases,  all 
throwing  light  on  the  meaning  of  the  word  Reckon. 
"  Who  against  hope  believed  in  hope,"  "  considered 
not  his  own  body  now  dead  when  he  was  about  an 
hundred  years  old,  neither  yet  the  deadness  of 
Sarah's  womb."  "  He  staggered  not  at  the  prom- 
ise of  God  through  unbelief,  but  was  strong  in 
faith,  giving  Glory  to  God,  and  being  fully  per- 


PRACTICAL   UNION-  WITH  CHRIST         49 

suaded  that. what  he  had  promised  he  was  able 
also  to  perforin."  Again,  in  Hebrews,  we  are  told 
that  "Sarah  judged  him  faithful  who  had  prom- 
ised." And  again,  of  Abraham,  that  in  offering  up 
the  Son  of  Promise  "he  accounted"  etc.,  19.  To 
consider  no  human  impossibilities  when  God  prom- 
ises ;  not  to  stagger  in  unbelief  before  the  seeming- 
ly impassable  barriers  to  blessing,  but  to  be  strong 
in  faith,  fully  persuaded  of  God's  ability  and  to 
judge  Him  faithful,  and  account  Him  able  even  to 
give  back  alive  what  is  dead— this  is  what  is  meant 
by  Reckoning  upon  God. 

We  are  told  in  Rom.  iv.  17  that  God  calleth 
those  things  which  be  not  as  though  they  were. 
This  is  exactly  what  faith  does  in  reckoning  God 
faithful.  His  word  has  gone  forth  as  to  a  yet  un- 
accomplished fact ;  he  gives  a  promise  which 
seems  and  is,  humanly  speaking,  impossible  of 
fulfilment.  Faith,  instead  of  looking  at  the  dififi- 
culties,  looks  at  the  Promiser ;  instead  of  stagger- 
ing in  weakness  before  the  apparent  impossibility, 
the  absolute  hopelessness  of  the  pase,  is  strong  in 
confidence,  giving  glory  to  God  in  advance  of  re- 
ceiving the  promise,  and,  against  hope,  believes  in 
hope. 

Thus,  a  word  that  seems  to  be  weak  is  really 
strong.  To  many  it  is  hard  to  see  what  difference 
it  makes  whether  or  not  I  reckon  a  thing  true. 
If  it  be  true,  it  is  not  such  reckoning  that  makes 
it  true,  and  if  it  be  false,  no  reckoning  can  make  it 


50  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

Other  than  false.  To  many  so-called  believers,  to 
reckon  or  count  is  simply  to  imagine,  and  implies 
only  credulity,  amusing  one's  self  with  one's  own 
fancies. 

Such  entirely  miss  the  true  thought  that  lies 
behind  the  word  reckon.  So  far  is  it  from  being 
a  mere  vain  imagination  to  reckon  on  God's  word 
as  an  accomplished  fact,  that  it  is  the  soul  a7id  sub- 
stance  of  faith : 

Seven  blessed  results  may  be  traced  to  such 
recko7iing  of  faith. 

1.  First  of  all  it  is  a  tribute  of  faith  to  God's 
ability,  willingness,  love  and  faithfulness. 

2.  It  is  a  challenge  of  faith,  indirectly  moving 
God  to  show  himself  the  faithful  Promiser. 

3.  It  is  an  attitude  of  faith,  waiting  in  expecta- 
tion of  blessing. 

4.  It  is,  therefore,  a  removal  of  the  limits  which 
unbelief  places  upon  God. 

5.  It  is  an  opening  of  the  heart  to  the  full  re- 
ception of  promised  good. 

6.  It  is  the  basis  of  all  active  obedience  and 
hearty  self-surrender. 

7.  It  is  the  secret  of  a  peaceful,  hopeful,  cour- 
ageous triumph  over  foes,  etc. 

Reckoning  is,  therefore,  a  form  of  faith.  It 
counts  Him  faithful  who  promised.  To  a  true 
believer  God's  word  is  God's  work  ;  His  promise 
is  His  performance.  With  man  a  word  and  even 
an  oath  may  utterly  fail,  but  God  is  unchangeable. 


PRACTICAL    UNION'  WITH  CHRIST         5 1 

He  speaks  and  it  is  done — it  stands  fast.  Hence, 
in  prophecy,  we  find  the  tenses  of  the  verb  used 
indiscriminately,  an  event  that  lies  a  thousand 
years  ahead  being  spoken  of  as  present  or  even 
past.  Comp.  Isaiah  liii.  The  Word  of  God  was 
so  accepted  and  counted  on  as  certain  to  be  ac- 
complished, that  the  language  of  prophecy  pre- 
dicting coming  events  is  the  language  of  history 
recording  past  events. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  such  reckoning  on  God's 
faithfulness  is  the  highest  possible  honor  that  can 
be  placed  on  His  word.  Indeed,  without  such 
faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  Him — Heb.  xi.  6. 

In  Hebrews  iii.  occurs  that  remarkable  phrase 
The  provocation.  Notice  the  definite  article  as 
though  one  form  of  offence  was  selected  out  of  all 
the  actual  and  possible  sins  against  God,  as  the 
one  unbearable  sin.  What  was  it  ?  simply  unbelief 
which  does  not  reckon  on  God.  In  the  desert 
wanderings  for  forty  years  God's  people  constant- 
ly provoked  God  in  this  way.  He  told  them  that 
He  brought  them  out  that  He  might  bring  them 
in.  Deut  vi.  23.  And  referred  them  constantly 
to  his  miracles  of  interposition  in  their  behalf  in 
Egypt  as  proof  and  example  of  His  power  and 
grace,  and  the  pledge  of  what  He  both  could  and 
would  do  for  them  in  the  actual  possessing  of  the 
Land  of  Promise.  But  they  believed  not  His 
words,  they  feared  the  giant  Anakim,  they  mur- 
mured against  God  and  many  a  time  they  threat- 


52  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

ened  to  go  back  into  Egypt.  Thus  their  unbelief 
was  a  four-fold  provocation  :  first  it  was  an  assault 
on  God's  truth  and  made  Him  a  liar;  upon  His 
power,  for  it  counted  Him  as  weak  and  unable  to 
bring  them  in  ;  upon  His  immutability,  for,  al- 
though they  did  not  say  so,  their  course  implied 
that  He  was  a  changeable  God,  and  could  not  do 
the  wonders  He  had  once  wrought.  And  unbelief 
was  also  an  assault  upon  His  fatherly  faithfulness, 
as  though  He  would  encourage  an  expectation 
He  had  no  intention  of  fulfilling.  On  the  con- 
trary, Caleb  and  Joshua  honored  God  by  account- 
ing His  word  absolutely  true,  His  power  infinite, 
His  disposition  unchangingly  gracious,  and  His 
faithfulness  such  that  He  would  never  awaken 
any  hope  which  He  would  not  bring  to  fruition. 

There  are  two  conspicuous  instances  in  which 
our  Lord  said  "great  is  thy  faith.  I  have  not 
found  so  great  faith  ;  no,  not  in  Israel : "  the  in- 
stance of  the  Centurion,  Matt,  viii.,  and  of  the 
woman  of  Canaan,  Matt,  xv.  In  both  cases  the 
greatness  of  the  faith  consisted  in  this  one  thing  : 
they  reckoned  upon  God,  The  Centurion  be- 
sought Christ  in  behalf  of  his  servant,  sick  of 
palsy.  And  when  Jesus  said,  "  I  will  come  and 
heal  him,"  he  replied,  "  I  am  not  worthy  that  Thou 
shouldst  come  under  my  roof.  Speak  the  ivord 
only  and  my  servant  shall  be  healed."  For  the 
first  and  only  time  in  His  public  ministry.  He 
found  a  man  who,  instead  of  insisting  on  some 


PRACTICAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST         53 

visible  sign  and  wonder — a  personal  visit  of  the 
Master — -preferred  to  rest  simply  on  Christ's 
spoken  word.  And  the  woman  of  Canaan  is  still 
more  remarkable  in  that,  having  no  encouraging 
word  of  promise  on  which  to  lean,  herself  an  out- 
cast Canaanite,  met  at  first  with  silence  and  then 
with  apparent  refusal  and  even  personal  rebuff, 
she  counted  on  Christ's  power  and  grace  so  confi- 
dently, in  the  absence  of  all  encouragements  to 
faith,  that  she  would  not  be  sent  away  without  the 
blessing,  actually  turning  repulse  into  an  argu- 
ment in  her  favor.  "  Go  thy  way,  the  devil  is 
gone  out  of  thy  daughter."  The  study  of  the  his- 
tory of  Christ's  personal  life  among  men,  and,  in 
fact,  of  the  entire  history  of  God's  people,  shows 
that  to  take  God  at  His  word  and  count  every 
promise  as  true,  resting  upon  it  as  if  it  were  already 
fulfilled,  is  of  the  very  essence  of  faith. 

When  the  nobleman  of  Capernaum  sought  heal- 
ing for  his  son,  who  was  at  the  point  of  death, 
Christ  said,  "Go  thy  way,  thy  son  liveth,"  and  the 
man  believed,  went  his  way,  and  so  counted  on  the 
word  of  Christ  that  he  did  not  go  home  that  day ; 
but,  although  Cana  and  Capernaum  were  not  ten 
miles  apart,  he  seems  to  have  stopped  on  the  way 
till  the  next  day.  And  the  great  lesson  of  that  nar- 
rative is,  whatsoever  He  saith  unto  you  trust  it. 

When  the  ten  lepers  sought  healing  (Luke  xvii.) 
Christ  bade  them  go  show  themselves  to  the  priest 
as  if  already  whole — to  be  pronounced  clean,  and 


54  SHALL    WE    CONTINUE   IN  SIN  ? 

released  from  ceremonial  and  social  restraints  and 
restrictions.  And  as  they  went  they  were  cleansed 
— i.e.,  because  they  counted  on  the  word  of  Christ, 
and  proceeded  as  though  already  the  blessing  was 
theirs — they  had  what  they  sought. 

If  the  greatness  of  faith  then  lay  in  this,  that 
God  was  reckoned  on  as  true,  faithful,  loving, 
gracious,  and  changeless,  in  all  these,  the  little- 
ness of  faith  and  the  greatness  of  unbelief  must 
lie  in  the  opposite  course — God  is  not  counted  on  ; 
practically  His  word  is  treated  as  a  lie,  or  as 
untrustworthy.  The  actual  work,  the  wonder 
wrought,  must  be  seen,  for  only  seeing  is  believing. 

While,  therefore.  Faith  makes  mighty  works 
possible,  men  limit  God  by  unbelief,  so  that  He 
cannot  do  mighty  works.  Comp.  Psalm  Ixxviii., 
cvi.  While  faith  opens  the  door  of  the  heart  to 
a  promised  blessing,  unbelief  closes  it,  and  so 
shuts  out  God's  gift  and  God's  presence. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  therefore,  that  to 
reckon  on  God  is  the  soul  of  faith  and  the  basis  of 
all  fellowship  with  Him,  Christ  could  not  do 
many  mighty  works  in  Nazareth  because  of  the  un- 
belief of  His  fellow-townsmen,  who,  remembering 
Him  as  the  carpenter's  son,  counted  Him  unable 
to  teach  or  work  with  divine  power.  Again,  let  it 
be  said,  so  far  as  I  reckon  God  able  and  willing, 
true  and  faithful,  and  that  every  word  He  has 
spoken  He  can  and  will  fulfil,  I  make  possible, 
both  for  Him  to  impart  and  for  myself  to  receive 


PRACTICAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST         55 

the  blessing  He  yearns  to  bestow.  Hence  the  im- 
mense, intense  significance  of  that  oft-recurring 
phrase,  "  According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you." 
Every  measure  of  blessing  is  determined  by  the 
measure  of  faith. 

We  can  see  something  quite  analogous  to  this 
in  our  relations  with  our  fellowmen.  Harmonious 
and  happy  relations  are  impossible  without  a  basis 
of  faith.  Take  the  credit  system — the  word  credit 
is  from  credo,  I  believe.  You  sell  goods  to  a  cus- 
tomer, counting  on  his  ability  and  fidelity  in  pay- 
ing his  bills  ;  and  the  whole  banking  system  is 
simply  counting  on  others'  trustworthiness.  What 
is  a  promissory  note  but  a  note  that  is  a  promise  ? 
You  have  actually  nothing  but  a  piece  of  paper  as 
to  actual  value — worthless — but  you  count  on  the 
solvency  and  honesty  of  the  man  whose  signature 
is  on  it — that  he  has  means  and  will  to  pay  it, 
and  you  use  that  worthless  piece  of  paper  as  cur- 
rency ;  it  passes  from  hand  to  hand  as  though  it 
were  gold. 

"  If  thou  canst  believe,''  said  Christ  to  him  who 
said,  "  If  Thou  canst  do  anything,"  etc. 

The  link  between  the  faith  that  reckons  God's 
word  true  and  the  actual  reception  of  blessing  is 
a  link  that  in  the  nature  of  things  tx\s,X.s.  To  count 
on  God's  word  brings  peace.  Here  is  a  lad  that 
says  to  his  father,  "When  you  come  home  to- 
night bring  me  a  penknife,"  and  his  father  says, 
"  I  will."    Careful  not  to  promise  a  child  what  he 


56  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

does  not  mean  to  do,  and  careful  to  do  all  he  has 
promised,  he  buys  the  knife  and  comes  home  with 
it  in  his  pocket.  And  when  at  night  he  meets  his 
boy,  the  child  does  not  say,  "Well,  I  suppose  you 
have  not  brought  me  the  knife  you  promised,"  etc., 
but  simply  comes  up,  puts  his  hand  in  his  father's 
pocket  and  takes  out  the  knife.  God  likes  to 
have  us  confide  likewise  in  our  Father's  word,  and 
without  a  doubt  come  and  lay  hold  of  the  prom- 
ised blessing.     This  is  the  secret  of  all  peace. 

Mr.  George  Miiller  has  been  observed  by  his 
helpers  to  be  quite  as  serene  and  joyful  in  God 
when  there  is  not  a  shilling  in  the  bank  or  a  loaf 
of  bread  in  the  larder,  wherewith  to  cloth  and  feed 
his  2,000  orphans  as  when  there  is  a  plenty,  both 
of  money  and  of  food.  And  the  only  explanation 
of  such  a  phenomenon  which  has  confronted  an 
unbelieving  world  and  half  believing  church  for  a 
half-century,  says  one  of  those  same  helpers  of 
this  patriarch  of  Bristol,  is  that  maxim  of  Mr. 
Muller  himself,  that  "  where  anxiety  begins  Faith 
ends,  and  where  faith  begins  anxiety  ends."  For 
him  to  count  on  God  is  to  dismiss  all  care.  If  he 
has  no  money  in  the  bank,  God's  riches  are  inex- 
haustible ;  and  if  he  has  no  food  in  the  larder,  his 
God  has  infinite  supplies  for  all  his  need,  and  there 
shall  be  no  lack. 

We  are  especially  concerned  now  with  the  bear- 
ing of  this  matter  upon  holiness — in  its  two  great 
aspects  :  abandonment  of  known  sin  and  obedience 


PRACTICAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST         5/ 

to  known  duty.  Elsewhere  in  this  epistle  Paul 
says,  "  Put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  viake 
not  provision  for  the  fiesh  to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof." 
— Rom.  xiii,  14.  All  our  life  long  we  are  making 
provision,  either  for  certainties  or  for  uncertain- 
ties. Some  things  we  know  we  shall  need,  such  as 
food  and  raiment,  a  home  and  the  like  necessities  ; 
other  things  we  may  need  as  crises  arise,  such  as 
sickness,  loss  of  property,  bereavement,  etc.  To- 
day we  have  made  provision  for  immediate  wants. 
As  we  expect  to  live,  we  provide  for  the  night's 
lodging  and  to-morrow's  meals.  Now,  if  you  knew 
that  to-night,  at  midnight,  death  would  certainly 
end  your  mortal  career,  you  would  at  once  stop 
making  provision  for  living.  A  shroud,  a  coffin,  a 
grave,  would  be  all  the  clothing,  house,  possession, 
you  would  need.  God  would  have  you  count  your- 
self dead  to  sin  and  hence  living  no  longer  there- 
in, and  reckon  yourself  alive  unto  God  and  unto 
holiness. 

Your  expectation  has  everything  to  do  with 
your  actual  life.  If  you  expect  to  sin  you  will 
sin,  and  if  you  expect  not  to  sin,  because  you  reck- 
on yourself  no  longer  under  sin's  mastery,  but 
under  God's,  you  will  find  that  expectation  itself 
a  security.  Paul  says  we  are  saved  by  hope,  and, 
in  the  armor  of  God,  the  very  helmet  is  the 
hope  of  salvation.  To  count  on  sinning  is  itself 
a  form  of  sinning ;  it  is  reckoning  the  flesh,  the 
world,  the  Devil,  mightier  than  the  Spirit  of  God 


58  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

and  the  Son  of  God,  whose  very  office  it  is  to  over- 
come the  flesh,  deliver  us  from  this  present  evil  age, 
and  destroy  the  works  of  the  Devil.  A  veteran  of 
Waterloo  used  to  tell  how  the  trained  soldiers  of 
Wellington,  the  night  before  that  decisive  battle 
that  turned  the  destinies  of  Europe,  took  the  raw 
recruits  and  told  them  of  the  skill,  the  capacity, 
the  courage  of  their  great  commander  and  so  in- 
spired them  with  confidence  in  the  Iron  Duke, 
that,  however  the  battle  might  seem  to  waver,  the 
ultimate  issue  might  be  confidently  expected  to 
be  victory  and  so  those  raw  recruits  went  into 
battle  expecting  victory  and  reckoning  defeat 
impossible.* 

When  Christ  told  the  blind  man,  whose  eyes  he 
anointed  with  clay,  to  go  to  the  pool  of  Siloam  and 
wash,  he  may  have  had  someone  to  guide  him 
to  the  pool,  but  if  he  counted  the  Lord's  word  as 
faithful,  he  dismissed  him  there,  even  before  he 
washed.  The  unbelieving  man,  even  when  he  out- 
wardly submits  to  God's  command,  timidly  experi- 
ments on  God.  He  holds  fast  his  earthly  guides 
and  helpers — lest  the  Lord  fail  him.  If  he  goes  to 
the  pool  at  all  he  says  to  his  guide  :  "  If  the  Lord's 
word  is  true  in  my  case  and  I  receive  my  sight,  I 
shall  not  need  you  on  the  way  back.  Wait  and  see 
whether  I  receive  my  sight."  The  true  believer 
dismisses  his  guide  at  the  pool — even  before  he 
applies  the  waters  to  his  eyes.  Has  not  his  Lord 
*  See  Asa  Mahan's  "  Out  of  Darkness  into  Light." 


PRACTICAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST         59 

spoken  ?  He  counts  on  seeing,  and  in  advance  casts 
away  all  other  dependence.  That  faith  not  only  hon- 
ors God,  it  is  a  challenge  to  him  to  honor  his  own 
word.  It  constrains  and  compels  him  to  be  faith- 
ful, if  he  were  in  need  of  any  such  constraint  or 
compulsion.  The  very  fact  that  his  humble  fol- 
lower leans  on  him,  trusts  in  him,  reckons  upon 
him,  makes  it,  if  possible,  the  more  certain  of  his 
interposition.  When  Abraham  had  prayed  for 
Sodom,  with,  do  doubt,  an  especial  thought  for 
Lot's  family,  God  remembered  Abraham,  though  he 
did  not  spare  the  city,  and  brought  out  Lot  ;  and 
hear  him  say,  as  he  hastened  the  tardy  steps  of 
Lot : — "  Haste  thee,  for  I  cannot  do  anything  till 
thou  be  come  thither !  "  As  though  He  was  hin- 
dered in  an  act  of  righteous  judgment  by  the  yet 
unsafe  position  of  the  man  for  whom  Abraham  had 
besought  him. 


IV 

ACTUAL   UNION    WITH   CHRIST 

"  Let  not  sin,  therefore,  reign  in  your  mortal 
body,  that  ye  should  obey  it  in  the  lusts  thereof — 

"Neither  yield  ye  your  members, as  instruments 
of  unrighteousness  unto  sin  ; 

**  But  yield  yourselves  unto  God  as  those  that 
are  alive  from  the  dead  ;  and  your  members  as  in- 
struments of  righteousness  unto  God  ; 

"  For  sin  shall  not  have  dominion  over  you, 

"  For  ye  are  not  under  the  law  but  under  grace." 
— Verses  12  to  23. 

Here  we  touch  the  point  in  this  great  argument 
where  the  believer's  union  with  Christ  actually 
affects  his  daily  life,  and  effects  the  one  grand 
result,  definite  holy  living.  This  is  a  distinct  ad- 
vance on  any  previous  step  or  stage  of  the  argu- 
ment. We  reach  here  the  supreme  point  of  appli' 
cation.  The  judicial  union  shows  us  how  God  con- 
strues our  relation  to  Christ  as  one  with  him 
before  the  Law ;  the  vital  presents  that  oneness  as 
implying  also  a  sharing  of  His  Life,  and  its  Spirit 


ACTUAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  6 1 

of  power ;  the  practical  union  teaches  how  we  are 
to  construe  our  union  with  Him  as  to  the  confi- 
dence it  inspires.  And,  now,  all  that  has  been  said 
reaches  its  grand  application :  what  is  to  be  the 
actual  effect  on  my  life  ?  If  the  whole  passage  be 
carefully  examined  it  will  be  found  again  that  at 
least  seven  answers  are  given,  for  in  every  part  of 
this  argument  we  find  a  complete  seven-foldness, 
which  strangely  marks  it  and  stamps  it. 

As  in  the  previous  section  the  great  word  was 
Reckon,  in  this,  the  great  word  is  Yield. 

First,  Negative — Yield  not  allegiance  to  sin,  the 
old  master.  Yield  not  your  members  as  instru- 
ments of  sin. 

Second,  Positive — Yield  yourself  and  your  mem- 
bers unto  God.  Yield  in  faith,  to  the  enablement 
of  Grace.  Yield  hy  practical  surrender  to  Christ 
as  Master.  Yield  by  receiving  from  the  heart  his 
teaching. 

And  so  claim,  possess,  enjoy,  the  full  gift  of 
eternal  life. 

It  is  also  plain  and  emphatic  that  the  true  way 
not  to  yield  to  sin  is  to  yield  unto  God.  Man  would 
naturally  say :  Let  not  sin,  therefore,  reign  in  your 
mortal  body,  neither  yield  ye  your  members  unto 
sin ;  but  resist  sin,  and  Jight  desperately  at  every 
point.  But  the  Spirit  says  not  so  :  the  most  suc- 
cessful fight  against  Sin  and  Satan  is  the  actual 
surrender  of  faith  and  obedience  to  the  new  Master. 
The  soul  is  never  strong  in  the  attitude  of  simple 


62  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

resistance.  Overcome  evil  with  good.  Occupy 
yourself  with  God,  and  displace  evil  by  good.  This 
is  the  idea  of  Chalmers  in  his  "  Expulsive  Power 
of  a  New  Affection." 

1.  I  am  to  disown  henceforth  all  allegiance  to 
sin  as  my  master. 

2.  To  withhold  my  members  from  all  service  of 
sin  as  his  instruments. 

3.  To  yield  myself  unto  God  and  my  members 
as  instruments. 

4.  To  trust  myself  to  the  enabling  power  of 
Grace. 

5.  To  accept  Christ  as  my  Master  and  practi- 
cally obey  him. 

6.  To  receive  from  the  heart  the  mould  of  God's 
teaching. 

7.  To  claim  and  enjoy  in  all  its  fulness  the  gift 
of  Eternal  Life. 

At  every  step  here  it  is  plain  that  actual  victory 
over  sin  is  contemplated,  and  positive  holiness,  ex- 
hibited in  character  and  conduct.  I  am  to  think 
of  myself  as  God  thinks  of  me,  and  make  the 
judicial  and  vital  union  with  Christ  a  reality,  by 
practically  counting  upon  God's  power  and  love, 
and  actually  exchanging  the  Sovereignty  of  sin  for 
the  Mastership  of  Christ. 

This  point  in  the  argument  can  best  be  under- 
stood by  the  change  from  standing  to  state.  Stand- 
ing represents  our  judicial  position  before  God, 
condemnation    exchanged    for    justification,   and 


ACTUAL  UNION  WITH  CHRIST  63 

alienation  for  reconciliation.  God  counts  us  no 
longer  sinners  and  enemies,  but  gives  us  a  new 
standing  as  sons  and  heirs.  Our  state  must  cor- 
respond with  our  standing.  Being  sons  we  must 
exhibit  His  image  and  likeness;  being  heirs,  we 
must  be  prepared  for  our  inheritance.  We  saw 
that  a  judicial  acquittal  implies  no  necessary  actual 
change  in  character  :  it  is  simply  an  act  of  sovereign 
mercy  and  grace  —  a  declarative  act.  But  God 
cannot  compromise  with  sin  or  tolerate  evil  in  us, 
and  justification  would  be  a  bargain  with  evil  do- 
ing if  it  did  not  contemplate  and  eventuate  in  sanc- 
tification  as  an  actual  state.  God  never,  therefore, 
justifies  without  sanctifying.  He  first  counts  or 
reckons  us  holy  in  Christ  and  then  proceeds  to 
make  us  holy,  until  at  last  we  are  presented  before 
the  presence  of  His  glory,  without  rebuke,  or  spot, 
or  wrinkle,  blame  or  blemish,  unrebukable  and  per- 
fect. We  must  remember,  therefore,  the  calling 
of  sons  and  the  destiny  of  heirs  and  keep  before 
us  that  great  injunction  and  invitation :  "  Be  ye 
Holy,  for  I  am  holy." 

Let  not  sin  therefore  reign  ;  this  implies  both  a 
privilege  and  di  power  to  resist  the  further  sover- 
eignty of  sin.  Do  not  longer  allow  sin  to  rule  over 
you  ;  this  would  be  a  mockery  of  my  helplessness 
if  I  am  impotent  to  resist. 

Sin  is  here  impersonated  as  a  tyrannical  master, 
once  obeyed  and  served,  but  whose  reign  is  now 
at  an  end  and  his  power  broken. 


64  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

How  am  I  to  meet  his  demands  and  maintain 
my  position  of  resistance  ?  That  is  the  first  prac- 
tical question. 

The  answer  is  :  By  my  Identification  with  Christ. 

We  have  seen  how  the  whole  life  of  Christ  as 
the  Last  Adam  was  representative,  and  how 
every  great  crisis  in  that  life  has  its  encouraging 
lesson  for  us.  Let  us  consider  His  Tejnptation  in 
its  bearing  on  this  subject.  Forty  days  at  the 
beginning  of  Christ's  public  life  strangely  corre- 
spond with  another  forty  days  at  its  close.  One 
represents  the  complete  victory  over  the  Devil 
and  the  other  the  glorious  conquest  over  death. 
Why  was  Christ  tempted  ?  not,  surely,  for  His 
own  sake,  but  that,  having  suffered  being  tempted, 
he  might  be  able  to  succor  them  that  are  now 
tempted  ;  so  that  every  tempted  soul  may  now 
come  boldly  unto  the  Throne  of  Grace,  knowing 
that  we  have  a  great  High  Priest,  who  knows  our 
infirmities,  and  has  compassion  on  the  ignorant 
and  them  that  are  out  of  the  way,  etc. 

To  compare  Adam's  Temptation  with  Christ's 
will  show  that  they  were  strangely  identical. 
Each  was  an  appeal  to  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the 
lust  of  the  eyes  and  the  Pride  of  life.  And  it  is 
plain  that  our  Lord  met  the  Tempter,  not  on  His 
own  account,  but  as  our  representative,  the  Last 
Adam.  Therefore,  everything  about  that  expe- 
rience has  a  significance  for  us  :  the  methods  of 
Satanic  approach,  the  methods  of  Messianic    re- 


ACTUAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  65 

sistance,  and  the  final  complete  victorious  issue, 
are  all  on  record  for  our  learning  and  encourage- 
ment. 

For  example,  we  learn  how  subtle  are  Satan's 
wiles.  He  suggested  to  Christ  unlawful  ways  of 
gratifying  and  satisfying  natural  and  sinless  crav- 
ings. Having  no  sinful  propensities  to  appeal  to,  in 
the  perfect  man,  he  addressed  such  innocent  de- 
sires as  hunger,  and  the  yearning  for  self-vindica- 
tion, for  the  speedy  accomplishment  of  his  mission, 
etc.  But  the  ways  he  suggested  to  attain  these 
lawful  ends  would  have  compromised  faith,  de- 
pendence on  God  and  self-surrender ;  they  would 
have  exhibited  a  lack  of  confidence  in  God's 
Fatherhood  and  Providence,  or  presumption  in  an 
unwarranted  exposure  to  danger,  or  an  attempt  to 
fight  God's  war  with  the  Devil's  weapons.  What- 
ever the  exact  character  of  Christ's  temptation,  it 
is  enough  to  know  that  He  was  tempted  in  all 
points  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin,  and  that, 
having  suffered  being  tempted,  He  is  able  to  suc- 
cor them  that  are  tempted. 

It  is  particularly  to  be  noticed  that  He  success- 
fully resisted  the  Devil  and  finally  actually  re- 
pulsed him  by  the  simple  use  of  the  Word  of  God. 
His  sole  attitude  was  resistance  :  He  stood  firm, 
and  never  came  into  close  quarters  with  the 
Tempter  as  in  a  deadly  grapple  or  violent  wrestle. 
He  calmly  stood  like  a  man  with  folded  arms  who 
fearlessly  looks  a  foe  in  the  face  and  defies  him  ; 


66  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

and  the  only  weapon  He  used  was  a  text  of  Script- 
ure— the  sword  of  the  Spirit  which  He  thrust  at 
Satan,  and  by  which  He  at  last  drove  him  back. 
Moreover,  Christ's  conquest  was  representative. 
In  His  victory  every  believer  is  a  victor,  and  for 
him  also,  so  far  as  he  is  in  Christ,  Satan  is  a  van- 
quished foe.  He  knows  that  no  temptation  ever 
befalls  him  but  such  as  is  common  to  man,  such  as 
for  him  Christ  underwent,  such  as,  in  Christ,  saints 
of  all  ages  have  met  and  resisted.  The  believer 
is  to  meet  Satan,  therefore,  as  Christ  did — folding 
his  arms,  take  his  stand,  look  him  in  the  face,  defy 
him,  and  answer  all  his  subtleties  with  a  word  of 
Scripture.  He  is  to  be  perfectly  assured  in  ad- 
vance that  Satan's  power  is  forever  broken.  One 
of  the  Spirit's  convictions  wrought  in  men  is  that 
the  Prince  of  this  World  is  judged,  not  is  to  be 
judged,  but  is  already  judged.  Christ  met  him, 
defeated  him,  drove  him  back,  put  him  to  rout, 
and  Satan  knows  that  his  sceptre  is  wrested  from 
his  grasp  by  a  mightier  than  he  and  his  empire 
shattered.  He  will  boast  and  seek  to  intimidate 
us  by  his  threats,  but  we  are  to  understand  that 
his  power  over  us  is  only  so  far  as  we  concede 
him  control.  We  may  allow  ourselves  to  be  taken 
captive  of  him  at  his  will,  and  so  fall  into  his  snare  ; 
but  if  we  put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God  and  sim- 
ply stand,  we  shall  withstand  in  the  evil  day  and, 
having  done  all,  still  stand  unmoved,  using  only 
the  same  sword  of  the  Spirit  as  Christ  used. 


ACTUAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  6j 

This  we  emphasize  because  of  a  common  notion, 
most  misleading  and  unscriptural,  that  Satan  is 
practically  omnipotent,  and  that,  like  some  giant, 
he  holds  and  carries  us  as  helpless  babes — that, 
like  some  resistless  lion,  he  prowls  about  seeking 
whom  he  may  devour,  and  if  we  come  into  contact 
with  him  he  will  tear  us  in  pieces  and  there  will  be 
none  to  deliver  ;  or,  again,  men  talk  of  tidal-waves 
of  temptation  that  sweep  them  off  their  feet  and 
carry  them  whither  they  will.  All  this  is,  I  believe, 
a  devil's  lie,  invented  to  put  us  more  helplessly  at 
Satan's  mercy. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  in  three  cases  of 
New  Testament  reference  to  Satan,  beside  the  two 
accounts  of  our  Lord's  temptation,  we  are  distinct- 
ly taught  that  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  stand.  James, 
who  has  so  much  to  say  about  temptation,  writes, 
"  Submit  yourselves  to  God  :  Resist  the  Devil  and 
he  will  flee  from  you,"  iv.  7. 

Notice  this  language :  Resist  and  he  will  flee. 
How  does  this  comport  with  current  notions  about 
Satan's  irresistible  power  over  men.  Can  a  weak 
and  puny  babe  resist  a  giant,  and  drive  him  back 
by  simple  resistance  ?  If  you  resist  a  tidal-wave, 
will  it  flee?  will  it  not  rather  be  you  that  flee  ? 

Turn  now  to  the  testimony  of  Peter  :  '*  Be  so- 
ber, be  vigilant,  because  your  adversary,  the  Devil, 
as  a  roaring  lion  walketh  about  seeking  whom  he 
may  devour :  whom  resist,  stedfast  in  the  faith, 
knowing  that  the  same  afflictions  are  accomplished 


68  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN  ? 

in  your  brethren  that  are  in  the  world  "  (i  Peter 
V.  8,  9).  Here  the  Devil  is  represented  as  a  lion, 
prowling  about,  roaring,  and  looking  for  his  prey  ; 
but  so  far  from  hinting  that  any  saint  is  abso- 
lutely at  his  mercy,  how  positive  is  the  teaching 
that  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  keep  watchful,  main- 
tain a  holy  sobriety,  and  take  the  attitude  of  re- 
sistance. We  are  to  keep  vigilant  lest  we  be 
taken  unawares  in  subtle  snares ;  we  are  to  keep 
sober,  lest  we  lose  power  to  stand  firm  and  main- 
tain the  attitude  of  resistance  ;  but  here  again 
we  are  plainly  taught  that  Satan  can  do  nothing 
with  a  child  of  God  who  watches  his  movements, 
keeps  prayerful,  and  stands  firm  and  strong  in 
Christ.  And  we  are  encouraged  to  remember  that 
other  tempted  saints  are  daily  meeting  and,  by  the 
same  grace,  resisting  this  great  adversary.  If  such 
scriptures  teach  anything,  it  is  that  Satan  has  no 
power  over  us  against  our  will  to  compel  us  to  sin. 
He  can  do  nothing  with  us  except  as  we  concede 
to  him  power  over  us. 

The  apostle  John  is  no  less  explicit.  In  a  part 
of  his  first  epistle,  which  is  given  to  the  warning 
against  the  power  of  evil  spirits,  and  especially 
the  arch  enemy  of  God  and  man,  he  uses  language 
as  remarkable  as  any  in  the  New  Testament 
(i  John  iv.  4).  Here  the  victory  is  represented 
as  an  accomplished  fact,  and  every  disciple  is 
taught  that  in  himself  there  dwells  One  who  is 
greater  than  all  these  evil  spirits  that  are  in  the 


ACTUAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  69 

world.  The  saint  is  a  fortress,  held  and  com- 
manded by  the  Divine  Spirit,  and  no  enemy  can 
prevail  against  Him.  "Ye  are  of  God  little  chil- 
dren and  have  overcome  them — the  spirits  of 
evil  ;  because  greater  is  He  that  is  in  you  than  he 
that  is  in  the  world." 

There  is  one  passage  in  Paul's  writings  which 
at  first  seems  to  give  color  to  the  idea  that  in  de- 
feating Satan  we  must  at  least  consent  to  a  dead- 
ly hand-to-hand  grapple  (Ephesians  vi.  10-16). 
Here  we  are  told  that  our  wrestling  is  not  against 
flesh  and  blood  only,  but  against  the  whole  hie- 
rarchy of  fallen  angels.  But  let  us  read  further 
and  see  how  we  are  to  meet  these  foes.  "  Strong 
in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  His  might,  we 
have  only  to  withstand  " — notice  the  repetition  of 
this  word — "  that  ye  may  be  able  to  stand  against 
the  wiles  of  the  devil,  able  to  withstand  in  the  evil 
day,  having  done  all  to  stand."  And  so  he  con- 
cludes :  ^^  Stand  therefore."  God  has  provided  an 
armor  of  resistance,  covering  the  disciple  from 
head  to  foot ;  and  clothed  in  that  panoply  he  can- 
not be  overcome.  When  Satan  hurls  his  most 
terrible  weapons,  his  fiery  darts,  the  shield  of 
faith  needs  only  to  be  held  up  to  receive  them, 
and  they  are  quenched,  and  the  one  and  only  of- 
fensive weapon  represented  as  to  be  employed 
is  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of 
God. 

I  am,  therefore,  not  to  yield  to  Satan,  but  calmly, 


70  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE   IN  SIN? 

resolutely,  to  resist  and  dispute  at  every  point  his 
claims  and  advances. 

But  in  the  word  of  God  we  are  never  left  to  the 
negative ;  the  positive  is  always  added.  We  are  to 
withhold  our  tongues  from  filthiness  and  foolish 
talking  and  jesting,  and  use  them  for  ministering 
grace  to  the  hearer.  We  are  to  put  off  all  that  ill 
becomes  a  child  of  God,  but  put  on  whatsoever  is 
holy  and  beautiful  in  temper  and  conduct. 

Let  us  look  now  at  the  positive  teaching  of  the 
word.  We  are  not  to  be  content  with  resistance ; 
there  is  a  positive  persistence — a  persevering  en- 
deavor, a  running  a  race,  etc. 

'*  Present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice.  Be  not 
conformed,  but  be  ye  transformed  "  (Rom.  xii.). 
The  only  hope  of  7wt  being  conformed  to  this 
world  is  that  I  am  transformed.  I  shall  vainly 
seek  not  to  yield  to  Satan  if  I  do  not  actually 
yield  to  God.  I  must  have  a  service  of  some  sort 
to  employ  me,  and  if  it  be  not  God's  it  will  be  the 
Devil's.  If  no  man  can  serve  two  masters,  neither 
can  any  man  serve  none.  Idleness  is  service  to  the 
Devil.  The  only  way  to  know  that  I  am  strong 
is  to  use  my  strength  ;  the  use  of  it  both  makes 
one  conscious  of  it  and  increases  it. 

This  lesson  is  taught  here  and  elsewhere  so 
beautifully  that  we  may  well  stop  to  learn  it.  Let 
us  look  at  it,  first,  in  its  relations  to  obedience  to 
God  ;  second,  as  to  soundness  of  doctrine,  and 
third,  as  to  consistency  of  life. 


ACTUAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  J I 

Here  we  meet  a  very  emphatic  command : 
"  Yield  yourselves  unto  God,  and  your  members  as 
instruments  of  righteousness  unto  God.  For  sin 
shall  not  have  dominion  over  you  ;  for  ye  are  not 
under  the  law,  but  under  grace." 

Here  is  a  command,  a  motive,  an  encourage- 
ment. We  are  not  under  law,  but  under  grace. 
Law  enjoins,  but  does  not  enable.  It  puts  before 
us  a  standard,  but  gives  no  power  to  obey  and 
overcome.  Grace  still  puts  before  us  a  high  and 
holy  standard,  abating  not  a  jot  or  tittle  of  the 
high  claims  of  obedience,  but  it  adds  gracious  en- 
ergy, strength,  enabling  power.  To  that  enabling 
power  we  are  to  entrust  ourselves  to  do  and  bear 
the  whole  will  of  God.  We  are  to  accept  this 
"grace  as  the  guaranty  for  obedience  and  con- 
formity to  God.  And  while  it  makes  us  strong  to 
resist  Satan  and  sin,  it  is  to  make  us  equally 
strong  to  receive  and  obey  the  known  will  of  God. 
Our  body  is  the  temple  of  God.  Let  Him  occupy 
and  consecrate  His  own  Temple,  and  let  every 
part  of  it  be  sacredly  given  up  to  his  inhabitation. 

Again,  the  Apostle  teaches  us  to  yield  ourselves 
to  God's  holy  teaching  (v.  17).  God  be  thanked 
that  ye  who  were  the  slaves  of  sin,  have  received 
from  the  heart  that  mould  of  teaching  whereunto 
ye  were  delivered.  The  figure  seems  to  be  that 
of  a  matrix  or  mould,  such  as  is  used  to  give 
plastic  clay  or  wax,  or  molten  metal,  a  desired 
shape.     God  has  a  definite  mould  of  teaching,  and 


72  SHALL    IVE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

SO  has  the  Devil,  and  we  are  carefully  to  distin- 
guish between  them,  and  beware  to  wJiat  sort  of 
doctrine  we  submit  ourselves.  God's  great  matrix 
of  character  is  His  word.  If  we  get  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  that^  and  fully  yield  ourselves  to 
its  influence,  we  shall  take  on  its  whole  impression 
until  we  grow  to  be  scriptural  believers.  That 
word  is  to  be  the  final  arbiter  in  every  contro- 
versy :  To  the  law  and  to  the  Testimony.  One  of 
the  subtlest  devices  of  the  devil  is  to  offer  us  a 
type  of  teaching  that  is  plausible  and  pleasing  to 
the  natural  heart,  and  recommends  itself  by  the 
fact  that  many  professed  believers  accept  it — nay, 
it  is  even  outwardly  and  in  some  things  conformed 
to  the  word  of  God,  but  is  really  unscriptural  in 
its  essence  ;  it  leaves  out,  if  it  does  not  contra- 
dict— vital  truths. 

Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon  used  to  say  that  a  certain  pop- 
ular preacher  was  a  first-class  preacher  of  the  sec- 
ondary truths  of  our  holy  faith,  but  that  his  preach- 
ing entirely  lacked  the  primary  truths,  such  as 
atonement  by  blood.  Regeneration  by  the  Spirit, 
etc. 

If  you  submit  yourself  to  unscriptural  teaching, 
however  recommended  by  illustrious  names,  you 
will  take  its  impress  and  begin  to  doubt  the  verities 
of  religion.  One  of  the  marks  by  which  you  may 
know  Satan's  mould  of  doctrine  is  that  it  leaves 
doubt  instead  of  faith.  He  leads  men  to  think  the 
Gospel  mould  is  narrozu  and  cramped,  that  it  may 


ACTUAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  73 

do  for  women  and  children  and  small  men,  for 
ignorance,  superstition  and  credulity,  but  not  for 
the  intelligent  and  wise  and  great.  And  so  peo- 
ple, who  once  believed,  learn  to  doubt  their  be- 
liefs and  believe  their  doubts,  if  they  do  not  go 
further  and  hold  beliefs  positively  opposed  to  the 
divine  teaching. 

Now,  the  one  rule  for  a  disciple  is  to  devoutly 
study  his  Bible  and  yield  himself  to  its  teaching. 
In  other  departments  men  hiow  in  order  to  believe; 
in  God's  school  we  must  believe  and  obey  in  order 
fully  to  know^  for  it  is  only  as  we  practically  test 
this  mould  of  teaching  by  conformity  to  it,  that 
we  actually  learn  its  perfection.  But  to  all  who 
thus  test  it,  by  daily  conformity  and  prayerful 
obedience,  it  becomes  supremely  satisfactory.  One 
becomes  more  and  more  eager  to  know  what  it 
teaches  and  obey  all  its  commands.  Obedience  is 
found  to  be  delight  and  the  organ  of  clearer  vision. 
God's  word  is  found  and  eaten  and,  like  food,  gives 
both  joy  and  strength. 

In  the  epistle  to  the  Colossians  Paul  very  beau- 
tifully shows  us  how  much  the  consistency  and 
beauty  of  a  Godly  life  depends  on  this  perpetual 
and  prayerful  subjection  to  God. — Chap.  iii.  The 
epistle  is  a  sort  of  commentary  on  these  three 
chapters  in  Romans.  In  the  first  two  chapters 
the  union  of  the  Believer  with  Christ  is  presented 
in  its  judicial  and  vital  aspects ;  and  then,  at  the 
third  chapter,  the  practical  and  actual  begin  to 


74  SHALL    IV E   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

be   put   before   us :     "  If   ye   then  be  risen   with 
Christ,"  etc. 

Note  the  following  injunctions,  all  based  upon 
the  fact  that  we  are  one  with  Christ  in  death  and 
resurrection  life : 

1.  Seek  those  things  which  are  above;  /.<?.,  look 
up  to  your  risen  Lord, 

2.  Set  your  affection  on  things  above  ;  i.e.,  mount 
up  and  look  down  on  earth  from  heaven, 

3.  Mortify  therefore  your  members  which  are 
upon  the  earth ;  i.e.,  live  there  and  let  what  is 
down  here  die. 

4,  Put  off  all  these  : 

5,  Put  on  therefore  :  above  all  these  things  put 
on  charity. 

6,  Even  as  Christ  forgave  you,  so  also  do  ye. 

7.  Let  the  peace  of  God  rule. 

8.  Be  ye  thankful, 

9,  Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  richly  in  you. 

10,  Whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus, 

Here  we  have  ten  general  exhortations,  all  based 
on  the  argument  in  chapters  i.  and  ii. 

Upon  two  of  these  exhortations  we  may  fix  our 
thought:  '' Put  off."     '' Put  on." 

At  first  we  meet  a  seeming  paradox  :  Paul  says 
ye  have  put  off  the  old  man  and  yet  he  says/«/  off 
all  these  ;  and  again  ye  have  put  on  the  new  man, 
and  yet  adds  put  on,  etc.,  and,  stranger  still,  he 
makes  the  fact  that  we  have  put  off  and  put  on  the 


ACTUAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  75 

reason  for  putting  off  and  putting  on.  But  now  ye 
also  put  off  all  these,  seeing  that  ye  have  put  off ; 
ye  have  put  on,  therefore  put  on.  How  shall  we 
reconcile  these  contradictions  ? 

1.  We  must  make  actually  true  what  \s  judicially 
true  and  let  our  state  correspond  with  our  stand- 
ing. Ye  have  died  judicially,  mortify  therefore 
your  members — be  dead  actually.  Judicially  ye  have 
put  off  the  old  man  and  put  on  the  new  man,  now 
practically  and  actually  put  off  and  put  on. 

2.  But  it  is,  perhaps,  a  fuller  and  clearer  explana- 
tion to  note  just  what  we  are  said  to  have  put  off 
and  put  on,  and  what  we  are  bidden  to  put  off  and 
put  on.  Ye  have  put  off  the  old  man,  now  put  off 
all  these  also  which  belong  to  the  old  man  ;  ye 
have  put  on  the  new  man,  now  put  on  all  that  be- 
longs to  the  new  man.  Life  must  be  consistent  to 
be  complete  and  beautiful.  When  Christ  rose  and 
came  out  of  the  sepulchre  he  could  not  leave  cor- 
ruption behind,  for  his  flesh  never  saw  corruption. 
From  his  birth  that  "holy  thing,"  born  of  the  vir- 
gin, was  immaculate  and,  with  no  taint  of  sin,  could 
not  decay.  Hence,  even  the  body  of  Christ  is 
called  in  Psalm  xvi.,  Thy  Holy  One — incapable  of 
corruption.  But  Christ  did  leave  behind  the  only 
thing  that  savored  of  corruption  —  his  grave 
clothes,  and  this  is  particularly  noted  in  the  Gos- 
pel according  to  John.  Comp.  xix.  40,  xx.  5-7.  The 
narrative  is  very  specific.  John  himself  saw  the 
linen  clothes  lying  there,  and  both  he  and  Peter, 


•j6  SHALL    WE  CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

on  closer  examination,  saw  the  linen  clothes  that 
wrapped  his  body  lying  in  the  sepulchre,  and  the 
cloth  that  wrapped  his  head,  not  lying  with  the 
rest,  but  in  a  separate  place.  When  our  Lord 
arose  and  came  out  of  the  tomb,  he  had  no  further 
use  for  grave  clothes,  and  they  were  conspicuously 
left  behind.  They  would  have  been  both  unbe- 
coming and  cumbersome  to  a  risen  and  active 
Redeemer  ;  and  as  they  belonged  to  death  and  the 
grave,  they  were  all,  even  the  cloth  that  wrapped 
his  thorn-crowned  head,  all  deposited  and  left  be- 
hind in  the  place  of  death.  And  yet  Christ  went 
not  forth  naked.  Whence  came  those  resurrec- 
tion robes  we  know  not,  but  they  were  not  the 
same  as  he  wore  before  crucifixion,  for  those  had 
been  parted  among  the  mocking  soldiers. 

How  clear  the  lesson.  Have  you  been  buried 
with  Christ  ?  leave  in  his  grave  all  that  belongs  to 
the  old  man,  for  all  this  belongs  to  death  and 
corruption.  Have  you  risen  with  Christ  ?  put  on 
all  the  garments  of  glory  and  beauty  that  belong 
to  the  new  man.  You  were  clad  in  pride,  be 
clothed  with  humility  ;  you  were  invested  in  your 
own  righteousness,  which  you  see  to  be  filthy  rags  ; 
now  put  on  Christ,  and  in  Him  the  righteousness 
of  God. 

The  grave  clothes  that  belonged  to  the  old  man 
have  about  them  the  association  and  infection  of 
sin,  the  contagion  of  Evil.  Hence  Jude  bids  us, 
even  when  pulling  sinners  out  of  the  fire,  to  hate 


ACTUAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  77 

even  the  garment  spotted  by  the  flesh.     I  heard, 
from  a  friend,  of  a  most  malignant  case  of  disease 
in  which,  after  the  death  of  certain  victims,  every- 
thing which  had  been  associated  with  the  disease 
was  ordered  to  be  burned  ;  subsequently  the  same 
disease  attacked  another  member  of  the  family, 
and  was  due  to  the  preservation,  from  the  fire,  of 
a  beautiful  sofa  cushion  which  had  been  used  as  a 
pillow  by  those  who  had  first  fallen  a  prey  to  the 
destroyer.      Whatever  is  associated  with  a  life  of 
sin  should  be  cast  off  and  renounced,  if  we  are  to 
be  safe  from  the  infection  and  contagion  of  this 
soul-destroying  disease.     Every  garment  spotted 
by  the  flesh  is  to  be  hated. 

A  friend  in  Newport  told  me  of  his  early  history 
and  how  he  was  enabled  to  meet  and  defeat  every 
temptation  by  a  simple  resort  to  scripture.  When 
tempted  to  marry  an  ungodly  woman,  because  of 
personal  attractions  and  wealth,  he  read  in  the 
word,  "  only  in  the  Lord."  When  tempted  to  crowd 
out  a  neighboring  tradesman,  whose  premises  he 
wanted  to  add  to  his  own,  he  read  "  devise  not  mis- 
chief by  thy  neighbor,  seeing  he  dwelleth  securely 
by  thee,"  etc.  In  every  crisis  of  temptation  a  word 
of  scripture  sufficed. 

But  let  the  Word  of  God  further  instruct  us. 
We  are  told  what  to  put  off  and  put  on.  Put  off 
all  these  :  Anger,  wrath,  malice,  blasphemy,  filthy 
communication  out  of  your  mouth  ;  lie  not  one  to 
another. 


78  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

Put  on  bowels  of  mercies,  kindness,  humbleness 
of  mind,  meekness,  long  suffering,  forbearmg  and 
forgiving  one  another,  and  above  or  outside  all 
these,  put  on  Charity,  which  is  the  bond  of  perfect- 
ness.  To  the  old,  unrenewed,  carnal  man,  anger, 
wrath  and  malice — sins  of  temper — blasphemy  and 
filthy  talking  and  lying — sins  of  tongue — were  nat- 
ural and  befitting  corruption.  To  the  new  man, 
renewed  in  knowledge  and  image  of  God,  mercy, 
kindness  and  humility,  meekness,  long  suffering 
and  forgiveness  are  the  only  appropriate  belong- 
ings ;  and  the  very  girdle  that,  outside  of  all  these, 
binds  them  together  and  keeps  them  in  place  is 
that  Love  that  is  the  bond  of  perfectness. 


MARITAL   UNION    WITH   CHRIST 

Here  we  may  well  take  shoes  off  our  feet  as  on 
holy  ground.  The  next  aspect  of  the  believer's 
union  with  Jesus  Christ  is  taken  from  Marriage^ 
and  hence  is  called  Marital.  Here  it  is  the  figure 
of  a  second  marriage,  the  obligation  and  relation 
involved  in  the  former  being  dissolved  by  death, 
so  that  the  woman,  thus  left  free  by  the  decease 
of  her  husband,  marries  another  man. 

"  Know  ye  not  how  that  the  law  hath  dominion 
over  a  man  as  long  as  he  liveth  ?  etc. 

"  Wherefore  ye  also  are  become  dead  to  the  law 
by  the  body  of  Christ  that  ye  should  be  married  to 
another,  even  to  him  who  is  raised  from  the  dead, 
that  we  should  bring  forth  fruit  unto  God."  That, 
and  the  following  verse  constitute  the  key  of  this 
part  of  the  argument. 

One  difficulty  confronts  us — what  seems  a  hope- 
less mixture  of  figures.  In  the  first  part  of  the 
representation  it  is  the  party  that  is  under  the 
dominion  of  the  law  which  is  personified  as  hus- 


80  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

band,  that  is  supposed  to  live,  while  the  husband 
dies ;  but  in  the  latter  it  is  the  party  married  to 
the  law  that  becomes  dead  to  the  law,  so  that  for 
a  consistent  figure  it  must  now  be  the  law  that 
survives  and  enters  into  a  second  union. 

We  may  solve  the  difficulty  by  saying,  as  is  often 
done,  that  no  figure  is  adequate  to  represent  such 
truth,  and  so,  dismissing  it  as  an  analogy,  accept  it 
simply  as  2i parable,  applicable  at  a  single  point  of 
resemblance.  If  we  adopt  such  method  of  inter- 
pretation, it  is  plain  that  the  vital  matter  is  this  : 
a  previous  and  binding  relation  is  somehow  dis- 
solved, released  by  death,  and  the  surviving  party 
is  free  to  enter  into  a  new  relation.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  the  believing  penitent  sinner  has  in  Christ 
found  such  release  from  a  previous  legal  relation 
and  has  become  Christ's  own  bride. 

But  there  is  a  deeper  solution,  for  we  are  touch- 
ing a  deeper  mystery.  Christ  died,  but  it  was  not 
possible  that  he  should  be  holden  of  death  ;  hence 
He  who  died  also  lives  forevermore.  And  so  the 
believer  who  in  Him  died  also  in  Him  lives.  Both 
things  are,  therefore,  true.  In  one  aspect  of  the 
believer's  experience  he  is  dead,  and  so  cannot  en- 
ter into  any  new  union  ;  in  another  he  lives  from 
the  dead  and  is,  therefore,  open  to  a  new  marital 
relation.  In  a  sense  it  is  the  law  that  survives, 
while  the  sinner  dies  under  its  penalty.  In  an- 
other sense  it  is  the  law  that  dies  as  a  rule  of  Jus- 
tification  and    as    a  controlling  and    Condemn- 


MARITAL    UMJON-  WITH  CHRIST  8 1 

ing  Power  over  the  sinner,  while  the  sinner  lives 
as  a  believer,  to  be  free  to  be  married  unto  Him 
on  whom  all  his  desire  is  now  centred. 

We  begin  now  to  see  why  Paul  refers  to  that 
first  marriage  in  Eden  as  a  Mystery  concerning 
Christ  and  the  Church.  Adam  slept,  and  during 
his  sleep  God  took  a  rib  from  his  side  and  from 
it  made  woman,  and  the  woman  became  wife. 
Adam's  sleep  was  the  type  and  prophecy  of 
Christ's  death,  which  is  at  once  the  death  of  the 
sinner  and  the  birth  of  the  believer.  Adam's  re- 
awaking  was  the  type  and  prophecy  of  Christ's 
resurrection,  making  possible  the  wedlock  of  the 
believer  with  his  Lord. 

In  this  figure  of  husband  and  wife  we  touch  the 
most  complete  and  wonderful  figure,  thus  far  found 
in  scripture,  to  present  the  union  of  the  believer 
with  Christ.  And  it  is  found  in  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  alike,  perhaps  .the  one  ideal  that 
most  pervades  the  scripture.  It  meets  us  first, 
in  Genesis,  in  the  typical  wedlock  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  and  last,  in  the  Revelation,  in  the  marriage 
of  the  Lamb  and  his  bride.  Most  wonderful,  per- 
haps, is  the  fact  that  the  controlling  conception  is 
that  of  a  marriage  with  one  who  has  been  the  wife 

nay  the  cast  -  off,   adulterous   wife  of  another. 

Nothing  is  more  moving  and  melting  in  point  of 
pathos  of  love,  the  poetry  of  tenderness,  than  some 
of  these  Old  Testament  portrayals  of  Redeeming 
Grace.     For  example,  Ezekiel  xvi.,  where  we  reach 


82  SHALL    IVE    CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

the  lowest  point  in  the  degradation  of  the  adulter- 
ous woman,  and  the  highest  point  of  grace  in  her 
restoration  and  reconciliation. 

The  great  central  point  whence  we  must  survey 
the  marriage  relation  as  the  chosen  symbol  and 
parable  of  the  Believer's  union  with  Christ  is  this — 

the  IDENTITY  OF  LIFE  FOUNDED  UPON  LOVE.     It  wiU 

be  seen  that  we  have  constantly  been  mounting 
higher  and  higher  in  the  study  of  this  great  argu- 
ment. In  the  Judicial  union  it  was  the  identity  of 
the  last  Adam  with  those  whom  he  represented  as 
Head  of  a  Race  ;  in  the  vital  union  it  was  the 
identity  of  the  Lord  of  Life  with  those  whom,  by 
His  Spirit,  He  quickens.  In  the  practical  union,  it 
was  the  identity  of  a  Leader  and  Champion  with 
those  who  follow  him ;  and  in  the  actual  union  it 
was  the  Identity  of  a  Sovereign  and  Master  with 
those  who  yield  to  Him  in  holy  subjection.  But 
now  it  is  the  identity  of  Husband  with  the  Wife 
who  is  to  him  bone  of  his  bone,  flesh  of  his  flesh. 
Partnership  indeed,  but  the  highest  of  which  we 
know. 

Let  us  stop  to  notice  the  closeness  of  this  unity 
and  the  perfection  of  this  identity. 

The  wife  loses  herself  and  her  separate  entity 
and  identity  in  her  husband.  Originally  drawn 
from  his  side  she  was  called  woman,  because  taken 
out  of  man ;  and  in  marriage  she  is  counted  as  in 
a  sense  returning  to  her  place  within  him,  nearest 
his  heart,  to  be  again  part  of  his  very  personality. 


MARITAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST  S3 

Hence  she  leaves  even  father  and  mother  to  cleave 
unto  him  ;  she  gives  up  her  family  name  and  takes 
his  ;  forsakes  her  family  home  to  make  her  home 
with  him  ;  her  property  and  even  herself  she  sur- 
renders to  his  control,  and  even  her  own  will  and 
way  become  henceforth  subordinate — no  longer 
twain,  but  one  flesh.  And  a  greater  mystery  is 
the  result  of  this — for  the  two  lives  thus  made 
one,  become  the  united  source  of  life  ;  marriage 
is  the  secret  of  parentage,  and  through  it  Adam 
begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness,  another  type  of 
the  holy  fruitfulness  of  true  believers. 

What  shall  we  say,  then,  of  the  exceeding  riches 
of  the  unsearchable  grace  here  presented  to  our 
thought  ?  We  can  only  stand  in  awe  before  such  a 
truth  and  look  up  as  before  a  mountain  whose  top 
is  lost  in  clouds,  as  to  something  that  is  high,  so 
that  we  cannot  attain  unto  it.  That  the  great  God 
in  Christ  should  stoop  so  low  and  lift  us  so  high, 
that  he  should  actually  take  us  out  of  the  filth  of 
our  lusts  and  raise  us  to  the  dignity  of  a  bride  that 
shares  the  ecstasy  and  purity  of  holy  love  !  This 
is  incredible  but  for  the  fact  that  He  himself  so 
declares  it  to  be. 

And  if  you  are  ever  tempted  to  bring  down  the 
word  of  God  to  a  human  level,  and  doubt  its  in- 
spiration, turn  to  the  fifth  chapter  of  Ephesians 
and  ask  yourself  what  but  a  divinely  taught  pen 
could  ever  have  represented  the  wife  as  exalted  to 
so  sublime  a  plane.     Read  the  seven-fold  descrip- 


84  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

tion  of  Christ's  Husbandly  Devotion  to  His  own 
Church  : 

He  loved  her  and  gave  Himself  for  her. 

He  sanctified  her  and  cleansed  her. 

He  nourishes  and  cherishes  her. 

He  will  present  her  to  himself. 

Now  this  marvellous  picture  of  the  Divine  Hus- 
band's lavish  love  for  his  believing  Bride  is  profess- 
edly drawn  from  marriage,  and  yet  earthly  wedlock 
at  its  best  furnished  no  model  for  such  a  picture. 
In  Paul's  day  there  was  not  a  husband  on  earth  who 
thus  thought  of  or  treated  his  wife,  even  among  the 
chosen  nation,  God's  peculiar  people,  or  even  where 
there  was  true  love  and  tender  attachment.  What 
husband  ever  so  lost  himself  in  his  wife  as  to  sac- 
rifice himself  for  her,  loving  her  not  for  her  purity 
and  innocence,  but  despite  her  impurity  and  guilt ; 
instead  of  being  dependent  for  his  love  upon  her 
virtuous  loyalty,  consecrating  himself  to  her  sancti- 
fication  and  cleansing,  overcoming  her  weakness 
and  alienation  by  a  nourishing  care  and  a  cherish- 
ing tenderness,  and  finally  presenting  her  to  him- 
self, made  all  that  she  is  by  his  own  unselfish  trans- 
forming Love?  Most  marital  love  is  a  love  of 
complacence,  answering  to  the  attraction  of  beau- 
tiful character;  here  it  is  a  love  of  benevolence, 
bestowed  notwithstanding  the  repulsion  of  wicked- 
ness and  abomination,  and  persistently  holding  on 
until  perfection  takes  the  place  of  deformity  and 
depravity.     Tell   us,  ye   who   count   the   Bible  a 


MARITAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  8$ 

human  book,  whence  Paul  drew  his  artist's  model 
for  this  fairest  portrait  of  wedlock  to  be  found  in 
all  literature  ?  Could  he  have  penned  this  descrip- 
tion had  he  not  been  taught  of  God  ? 

This  relation  is  one  of  the  highest  power  and 
privilege,  and  hence  it  is  here  presented  in  its 
bearing  on  our  noncontinuance  in  sin. 

Marriage  is  the  sphere  of  blessing :  i,  identity. 
2,  blessed  possession,  etc.  If  the  wife  surrenders 
herself,  she  meets  in  a  high  sense  a  surrender  of 
Love  to  herself;  she  gives,  and  in  giving  gets. 
She  says  "  I  am  his,"  but  she  can  add  "  my  beloved 
is  mine."  It  is  a  mutual  possession.  So  the  believer 
can  say  in  Christ,  My  Lord  and  My  God. 

Marriage  is  the  sphere  of  privilege.  It  brings 
the  wife  into  the  intimacies  of  her  husband's  life. 
There  is  a  sharing  of  thoughts  and  love  and  pur- 
pose, so  that  in  a  true  wedlock  there  comes  to  be 
a  unity  found  nowhere  else.  Discord  there  can- 
not be,  because  two  hearts  with  all  their  desires 
and  hopes  are  made  one.  So  of  Christ  and  the 
believer. 

Marriage  is  the  sphere  oi  parentage.  Eve  was 
the  mother  of  all  the  living,  because  Adam  was 
the  father  of  all  the  living  and  she  was  his  wife. 
"  Be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth 
and  subdue  it,"  was  the  command  God  addressed 
to  the  first  wedded  pair.  Dominion  over  the  lower 
sphere  of  nature  depended  on  multiplication  of  the 
higher  orders  of  life,  and  only  so  can  be  under- 


86  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

Stood  the  typical  force  of  that  formal  and  ideal 
marriage  which  forecast  the  wedlock  between 
Christ  and  His  church.  Mary  the  Virgin  could 
become  the  mother  of  the  Messiah  only  as  the 
power  of  the  Highest  overshadowed  her  and  the 
Holy  spirit  came  upon  her.  Then  that  Holy  thing 
was  born  of  her  which  was  called  the  Son  of  God. 

Would  you  bring  forth  fruit  unto  God,  who  once 
brought  forth  fruit  only  unto  death  ?  You  must 
become  the  Bride  of  Christ.  In  union  with  him 
holy  fruitfulness  becomes  possible.  No  holy  thing 
can  be  born  of  you  that  is  not  begotten  of  him. 
But  in  union  with  Him  everything  holy  becomes 
as  natural  and  as  necessary  as  in  union  with  sin 
evil  fruitfulness  becomes  inevitable. 

This  marital  union  involves  also  corresponding 
exclusiveness. 

In  all  our  human  relations  duty  and  delight  keep 
pace — the  higher  the  privilege  and  the  closer  the 
intimacy  the  stronger  the  debt  we  owe  to  love  and 
the  more  exclusive  the  bond.  For  example,  there 
are  three  terms  we  apply  to  our  relations  to 
others  whom  we  know :  acquaintance,  friendship, 
wedded  love.  Acquaintance  is  not  intimate,  and 
it  has  no  bounds ;  one  may  have  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  acquaintances.  But  when 
acquaintance  passes  into  friendship,  the  circle  nar- 
rows and  includes  fewer  persons ;  and  in  propor- 
tion as  the  intimacy  is  closer  the  number  is  fewer. 

But   again   the    obligation   is    correspondingly 


MARITAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  Sj 

binding.     A  man  owes  little  to  his  acquaintances 
beyond  the  courtesies  of  common  life.     But  to  his 
best  friends  he  owes  much,  for  intimacy  and  unity 
are  purchased  at  a  costly  price.     My  friend  has  a 
right  to  expect  of  me  and  exact  from  me  a  pe- 
culiar jealousy  for  his  reputation,  peculiar  devo- 
tion to  his  welfare  and  happiness,  and  a  peculiar 
sacredness  in  guarding  what  he  entrusts  to  me. 
But  when  we  come  to  marriage  the  union  is  so 
close  that  it  narrows  down  the  circle  so  that  it  em- 
braces only  two  within  it  and  can  admit  no  more. 
Nay,  the  thought  of  admitting  another  is  destruc- 
tive of  its  purity  and  perfection.     Here  the  obliga- 
tion is  such  that  either  one  would  die  for  the  other, 
interposing  the  body  between  the  other  and  any 
threatened  danger. 

Now,  let  us  remember  that  the  believer's  rela- 
tion to  the  Lord  Jesus  is  marital,  and  its  obliga- 
tions, like  its  privileges,  are  marital— the  relation 
is  so  close  it  is  exclusive— it  closes  in  two  parties 
and  closes  out  all  others.  No  man  can  serve  two 
masters ;  but  much  less  can  one  wife  yield  her- 
self to  two  husbands.  Any  love  for  another  is  dis- 
loyalty to  the  lawful  spouse,  and  is  known  by  one 
of  the  most  offensive  words  in  human  language- 
adultery. 

This  word  when  used  in  scripture  and  applied  to 
the  believer  has  generally  no  reference  to  viola- 
tions of  the  seventh  commandment  as  such,  but 
of  the  first.     When  James  rebukes  adulterers  and 


88  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

adulteresses  he  is  referring  to  those  who,  while 
married  to  Christ,  are  coquetting  with  the  world 
that  is  his  enemy  ;  and  he  says  "the  friendship  of 
the  world  is  enmity  with  God." 

This  passage  of  scripture,  which  lifts  us  to  the 
very  summit  of  exalted  privilege,  confronts  us  with 
the  thunders  and  lightnings  of  Divine  warning. 
You  are  permitted  to  regard  yourself  as  the  Bride 
of  Christ.  But  remember  that  because  you  are 
thus  admitted  to  Bridal  union,  every  act  of  sin 
strikes  at  the  very  foundation  of  this  union,  as 
adultery  strikes  at  the  very  basis  of  marriage. 
What  would  you  think  of  a  wife  who,  while  calling 
a  man  her  husband,  ventures  to  see  how  far  she  can 
trifle  and  flirt  and  coquette  with  a  betrayer,  and 
yet  not  lose  her  husband  altogether?  and  what 
shall  be  thought  of  a  believer  who  ventures  to  see 
how  far  he  can  dally  with  the  forbidden  pleasures 
of  this  world  and  the  desires  of  the  flesh,  and  not 
altogether  forfeit  His  Saviour? 

"  Do  ye  think,"  adds  James,  "that  the  scripture 
speaketh  in  vain  :  The  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  us 
jealously  desireth  us  ? "  I  suppose  that  somewhat 
obscure  passage  means  that  the  Heavenly  Bride- 
groom, now  seated  on  His  Father's  throne,  claims 
His  Bride  for  Himself  and  jealously  desireth  her 
altogether  for  Himself,  Think  of  it !  God  claims 
and  desires  you  exclusively  for  His  own  love,  use 
and  delight.  That  thought  ought  to  make  sin 
impossible,  and,  so  far  as  it  possesses  and  really 


MARITAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST  89 

controls,  it  will  make  sin  as  unnatural  as  impurity 
is  to  a  loyal  wife. 

The  warning  niay  explain  what  follows  in  this 
chapter.  We  have  two  unions  contrasted  here : 
one  with  the  law,  which  leaves  us  to  the  working 
of  lust  and  which  brings  forth  only  sin  ;  and  the 
other  with  Christ,  which  makes  love  the  controll- 
ing passion  and  brings  forth  fruit  in  newness  of 
Life.  Now,  if  we  mistake  not,  this  much-disputed 
passage,  Rom.  vii.  7-25,  shows  us  the  believer  in 
his  experience  of  the  two  conflicting  principles  at 
work  —  Love  of  God  on  one  hand,  lust  of  fiesh  on 
the  other  hand,  contrary  the  one  to  the  other.  Yet 
even  the  regenerate  will  is  not  strong  enough  to 
overcome,  and  Paul  cries  out,  "  I  approve  the  law 
as  righteous,  holy,  perfect,  good  and  spiritual " ; 
but  he  is  not  practically  delivered  from  the  Power 
of  Evil  ;  and  whenever  he  thinks  of  his  still  exist- 
ing bondage  to  the  old  habits  and  tendencies 
of  the  carnal  nature,  he  can  only  cry  out,  "  O 
wretched  man  that  I  am  !  Who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death."  But  it  is  not  a 
hopeless  cry.  He  answers,  "  I  thank  God,  through 
Jesus  Christ,  Our  Lord  !  "  We  all  have  uttered  his 
cry  of  despair.  How  many  of  us  can  as  confidently 
use  his  shout  of  victory  ? 

The  bearing  of  all  this  on  holiness  is  perfectly 
plain.  Marriage  is  the  secret  of  parentage — union 
with  Jesus  will  in  all  cases  be  the  secret  of  holy 
fruitfulness.     While,  and  so  far  as,  united  vitally 


go  SHALL    IV E    COXTINUE   IN  SIN? 

to  Christ,  we  have  power  to  love  and  serve  and 
obey  God. 

A  curious  illustration  of  this  truth  in  another 
sphere  was  given  to  me  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Devins. 
At  Northfield,  at  the  Auditorium,  the  reporter  of 
the  New  York  Tribune  was  seeking  to  transmit,  by 
telegraph,  to  the  paper,  one  of  the  addresses  there 
delivered.  He  found  that  for  some  unknown 
cause  the  current  and  circuit  were  broken — the 
wire  would  not  work,  and  this  made  it  necessary 
to  send  over  to  South  Vernon  and  transmit  from 
a  new  station.  The  linemen  found  that  the  wire 
at  one  point  near  the  operator's  table  had  lost  its 
insulation  and  was  touching  the  ground  and  dis- 
charging its  electric  power  into  the  earth.  What 
a  parable  of  life  !  There  were  men  and  women  in 
that  audience  who  were  in  such  contact  with  the 
world  that  they  could  neither  contain,  retain,  nor 
transmit  blessing.  If  you  want  Christ-life  to  be- 
come Christ-power,  you  must  maintain  separation 
unto  God.     The  touch  of  sin  is  fatal  to  power. 


VI 

SPIRITUAL   UNION    WITH   CHRIST 

Up  to  this  point  there  has  been  no  mention  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  this  argument  on  non-continu- 
ance in  sin  ;  and,  indeed,  so  far  in  this  epistle  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  been  barely  referred  to  twice 
(i.  4  and  v.  6).  But  when  we  reach  this  eighth 
chapter  we  find  it  so  full  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that 
within  these  thirty-nine  verses  He  is  at  least 
twenty-eight  times  distinctly  mentioned  or  obvi- 
ously referred  to,  and  His  activities  pervade  the 
whole  chapter. 

It  would  seem  that  this  must  be  a  very  impor- 
tant feature  of  this  part  of  the  great  demonstra- 
tion that  to  go  on  sinning  is  both  needless  and 
unbelieving.  In  the  latter  part  of  chapter  vii., 
from  verse  seven  to  the  close,  occurs  one  of  the 
most  difficult  and  disputed  passages  in  the  word 
of  God.  Does  it  refer  to  the  regenerate  or  unre- 
generate  man  ?  What  is  the  state  of  this  man  who 
delights  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man, 
yet   finds  another  law   in   his   members   warring 


92  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

against  the  law  of  his  mind  and  bringing  him  into 
captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  ;  who  is  this  that  when 
he  would  do  good  finds  evil  present  with  him  ?  etc. 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  in  my  own  judgment 
this  is  a  faithful  portrait  of  every  child  of  God, 
up  to  the  point  in  his  experience  where  the  Spirit 
of  God  becomes  to  him  a  living,  present  indwelling 
and  inworking  Spirit  of  power  and  holiness.  And 
if  this  be  the  true  interpretation  we  can  under- 
stand why  this  experience  of  the  disciple  is 
brought  into  the  argument  at  this  point.  Hitherto 
the  Holy  Spirit  has  been  left  out  of  the  discussion. 
We  have  had  the  working  of  the  law,  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  Christ,  the  working  of  faith 
identifying  us  with  Him,  the  refusal  to  yield  to 
sin,  and  the  positive  surrender  to  God,  and  the  be- 
lieving soul  wedded  to  the  Lord  Jesus  in  bridal 
union  in  order  to  bring  forth  fruit  unto  God. 
And  yet  it  is  true  that,  even  with  the  apprehension 
of  all  these  great  facts  and  truths,  the  believing 
soul,  feeling  the  awful  power  of  inborn  and  inbred 
sin,  finds  an  inevitable  warfare  before  him,  in  which 
the  enemy  is  stronger  than  himself.  How  shall 
all  these  truths,  which  he  has  been  taught  in  these 
two  chapters,  about  his  judicial,  vital,  practical, 
actual,  marital  union  with  Jesus  be  made  so  real 
to  him  as  to  strengthen  him  with  courage  for  the 
encounter  ?  How  shall  the  image  of  his  Master 
and  Lord  be  so  kept  before  him  that  he  shall  never 
lose  sight  of  him  ?     How  shall  a  new  law  in  his 


SPIRITUAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST         93 

spiritual  life  assert  itself  as  sufficiently  mighty  to 
annul  the  power  of  the  law  of  sin  and  death  ?  At 
the  conclusion  of  that  eighth  chapter  Paul  says,  in 
despair,  "  O  wretched  man  that  I  am  ;  who  shall 
deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ? "  He 
feels  like  a  victim  of  ancient  tyranny,  chained 
to  a  dead  carcase  and  compelled  to  drag  it  about 
with  him,  breathe  its  infection  and  the  taint  of 
corruption,  and  he  despairs  of  self-deliverance. 
But  despair  changes  to  hope,  for  he  thanks  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  For  what  does 
he  thank  God  ?  It  seems  to  me  it  is  for  that  next 
and  most  blessed  source  of  deliverance  of  whom 
the  eighth  chapter  is  the  supreme  revelation — the 
Holy  Spirit  of  God,  whom  he  recognizes  as  the 
Divine  indwelling  Power  and  Person  who  accom- 
plishes for  the  believer  these  things. 

First — He  takes  of  Christ  and  shows  to  the  be- 
liever. 

Second — He  testifies  of  Christ  to  the  believer. 

Third — He  glorifies  Christ  in  the  believer. 

We  shall  see  what  this  means,  but  let  it  be  now 
said  in  a  word,  that  upon  the  Holy  Spirit  depends 
wholly  the  clear,  true  apprehension  of  all  the  facts 
of  Redemption — until  He  works  in  us  they  are 
fancies  or,  at  best,  theories  rather  than  facts.  So 
soon  as  He  practically  possesses  us  we  become 
adjusted  to  these  truths,  so  that  they  become  act- 
ually effective  in  our  daily  life. 

It  cannot  be  by  any  accident  that  this  eighth 


94  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

chapter  contains  a  fuller  revelation  of  the  Spirit  in 
His  work  in  the  believer  than  any  other  in  the  Epis- 
tles ;  and  the  bearing  of  all  this  teaching  on  the 
believer's  holy  living  can  be  seen  only  by  a  careful 
collation  and  comparison  of  the  testimony  herein 
contained.  Let  us  take  notice  of  each  mention  of 
the  Spirit  herein  found,  and  of  the  peculiar  and 
characteristic  feature  of  each  separate  mention. 
We  pass  by  that  in  the  first  verse,  as  it  is  gener- 
ally regarded  as  an  interpolation,  not  being  found 
in  the  best  manuscripts. 

Verse  2.  The  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death. 

Here  is  Life  in  contrast  to  death  ;  Liberty  in 
contrast  to  bondage. 

4.  That  the  righteousness  of  the  law  might  be 
fulfilled  in  us  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but 
after  the  Spirit. 

Here  is  a  walk  after  the  Spirit — strength 
in  contrast  to  weakness  ;  obedience  in  contrast 
to  sin  ;  ability  in  contrast  to  disability  and  in- 
ability. 

5.  They  that  are  after  the  Spirit  do  tnind  the 
things  of  the  Spirit. 

Here  is  a  mind  of  the  Spirit  in  contrast  to  a 
mind  of  the  flesh,  a  habit  of  thinking,  feeling,  de- 
siring, loving,  choosing  spiritual  things. 

6.  To  be  spiritually  minded  is  life  and  peace. 
Here  is  Life  in  contrast  to  death  ;  peace  in  con- 


SPIRITUAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST         95 

trast  to  alienation  ;  subjection  in  contrast  to  rebel- 
lion ;  pleasing  God  instead  of  enmity. 

7.  Ye  are  not  in  the  flesh  but  in  the  Spirit^  if  so 
be  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwell  in  you. 

Here  is  a  mutual  abiding — the  Spirit  in  us  and 
we  in  the  Spirit ;  language  only  intelligible  when 
the  Spirit  is  conceived  as  the  element  in  which  we 
live,  move,  and  have  our  being. 

9.  Now,  if  any  man  have  not  the  Christ  Spirit  he 
is  none  of  His. 

Here  is  identity  with  Christ  by  partaking  of  his 
spirit,  the  one  test  and  proof  of  being  in  Christ 
and  His  being  in  us. 

10.  The  spirit  is  life  because  of  Righteousness. 
Here  is  the  identity  of  Life  and  righteousness, 

showing  what  the  life  of  the  Spirit  is,  enabling 
power  to  do  the  will  of  God. 

1 1 .  If  the  Spirit  of  Him  that  raised  up  Jesus  from 
the  dead  dwell  in  you,  He  that  raised  up  Jesus 
from  the  dead  shall  also  quicken  your  mortal  bodies 
by  His  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you. 

Here  we  have  the  Spirit  of  Life,  the  Spirit  of 
Resurrection — imparting  His  quickening  power 
even  to  the  mortal  body  (note  the  distinction 
between  the  mortal  and  corruptible  body,  as  in 
I  Cor.  XV.).  The  mortal  body  is  the  living  body, 
liable  to  death  ;  the  corruptible  body  is  the  dead 
body,  already  under  power  of  death.  The  Spirit 
that  dwells  in  the  body  exercises  even  over  the 
body  a  life-giving  and  enabling  power. 


96  SHALL    IV E   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

13.  If  through  the  Spirit  ye  do  mortify  the  deeds 
of  the  body  ye  shall  live. 

Here  the  Spirit  is  the  power  that  makes  dead 
what  ought  to  die,  as  He  makes  alive  what  ought 
to  live. 

14.  As  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God  they 
are  the  sons  of  God. 

Here  the  Spirit,  who  is  life  and  liberty,  is  also 
the  leader  of  the  child  of  God.  Notice  a  leader  is 
not  one  who  goes  before  simply,  but  who  takes  us 
by  the  hand  and  insures  our  following. 

15.  Ye  have  received  the  Spirit  of  adoption 
whereby  we  cry  Abba  Father. 

Here  the  Spirit  is  the  secret  of  conscious  j^wj-^/^, 
giving  us  power  and  right  to  address  God  as  Father 
in  contrast  to  a  servant,  who  says  Master,  or  a 
subject,  who  says  Lord — the  life  of  privilege  and 
possession  God  wards.  Here  love  as  well  as  faith 
is  traced  to  the  Spirit. 

16.  The  Spirit  himself  bearcth  witness  with  our 
spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of  God.  , 

Here  we  have  assurance  of  sonship  by  the  Spirit, 
and  of  heirship  and  expectancy.  All  hope,  as  well 
as  faith  and  love,  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit. 

26,  The  Spirit  also  helpeth  our  infirmities. 

Here  the  reference  is  to  our  natural  ignorance 
and  incapacity  to  pray  aright.  We  know  not,  etc. 
The  Spirit  intercedes  in  us  and  for  us  ;  our  groan- 
ings  are  his  movings. 

What  a  body  of  teaching  on  the  Spirit's  relation 


SPIRITUAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST         97 

to  the  believer's  holiness  !  To  him  are  here  traced 
Life,  Liberty,  strength,  ability,  holy  mind,  peace, 
subjection  of  will,  pleasing  God,  identity  with 
Christ,  participation  in  the  nature  of  God,  ena- 
bling power,  bodily  quickening  and  mortifying, 
leadership  in  holiness,  conscious  sonship  and  heir- 
ship, the  filial  spirit  and  the  filial  tongue,  assur- 
ance of  faith  and  love  and  hope,  and  help  in  our 
infirmities,  especially  in  prayer. 

These  are  all  the  direct  references  to  the  Spirit, 
but  every  verse  in  this  sublime  chapter  must  be 
read  with  Him  in  it  if  it  is  understood. 

After  examining,  one  by  one,  the  references  to 
the  Spirit  which  this  chapter  contains,  we  cannot 
avoid  the  conviction  that  here  is  to  be  found  the 
key  to  that  rapturous  shout  of  thanksgiving  in 
chapter  vii.  25.  When  Paul  is  at  the  very  verge 
of  the  abyss  of  despair  of  all  self-help  or  legal 
sanctification,  he  cries  out  "  who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death  !  I  thank  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  And  this  chap- 
ter reveals  what  was  that  new  truth  that  was  the 
solution  of  all  his  difficulties. 

We  ought  to  have  no  difficulty  in  locating  this 
experience  of  the  apostle  if  we  judge  his  case  by 
our  own.  After  we  have  learned  what  Christ  has 
done  for  us,  and  what  is  our  standing  before  God 
in  him  ;  after  we  have  passed  into  the  regenerate 
state  and  our  will  is  to  do  the  will  of  God,  we 
still  find  a  lack  of  power  to  perform,  and  are  con- 


98  SHALL    IVE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

stantly  brought  to  the  verge  of  despair  at  our  in- 
effectual efforts. 

A  glance  at  the  biography  of  eminent  saints  will 
show  this  as  the  common  experience  of  believers. 
They  discover  a  double  tendency  within  them — a 
tendency  downward  and  a  tendency  upward. 
There  are  two  laws — one  of  gravitation  toward 
Evil,  another  of  gravitation  toward  God  and  good- 
ness :  may  we  not  say,  using  scientific  terms,  a 
centrifugal  and  a  centripetal  force,  one  of  which 
sways  at  one  time  and  the  other  at  another.  And 
the  problem  of  the  new  life  is  how  to  ensure  the 
constant  sway  of  the  centripetal.  There  is  an 
honest  effort  to  serve  and  please  God.  But  the 
temper  is  unsanctified,  the  tongue  is  untamed,  the 
disposition  is  tainted  with  envy  and  jealousy  and 
malice  and  uncharitableness. 

There  is  even  a  deeper  difficulty.  We  notice 
that  in  the  seventh  chapter  the  Law  is  as  prom- 
inent as  the  Spirit  is  in  the  eighth.  In  twenty-five 
verses  we  find  the  word  law  or  commandment 
twenty-eight  times  and  the  Spirit  not  once.  Those 
who  construe  this  experience  of  Paul  as  that  of  an 
unregenerate  man  contend  that  it  is  unconceivable 
that  he  could  thus  look  to  the  law  for  justification 
after  he  was  converted.  Just  so,  but  may  he  not 
be  here  depicting  the  conflicts  of  a  man  who  looks 
to  the  law  for  sanctification  as  the  Galatians  did  ? 

There  is  a  peril  which  besets  the  Saint  exactly 
correspondent  with  that  which  besets  the  Sinner. 


SPIRITUAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST         99 

The  sinner  goes  about  to  establish  his  own  justifi- 
cation by  a  resort  to  legal  works  ;  and  when  he 
comes  to  utter  despair  of  self-help  he  finds  pardon 
and  peace  in  the  finished  work  of  Christ  on  the 
Cross.  But  how  often  the  converted  soul,  going 
about  to  establish  his  own  sanctification,  resorts 
to  legal  works.  After  accepting  Christ  as  Sav- 
iour, there  is  a  continual  temptation  to  a  legal 
spirit.  Every  day  we  are  prone  to  measure  our 
acceptance  with  God  by  our  measure  of  faithful- 
ness ;  what  we  have  done  or  failed  to  do,  and  so 
we  are  tossed  up  and  down  and  driven  to  and  fro 
by  our  double  mindedness  ;  but  from  this  state  of 
doubt  and  conflict— this  Doubting  Castle — there  is 
but  one  deliverance.  We  must  learn  now  that  the 
law  must  be  abandoned  as  our  hope  of  sanctification 
just  as  it  was  previously  abandoned  as  our  ground 
oi  justification.  Having  found  peace  with  God  by 
looking  to  Christ's  finished  work  on  the  cross,  we 
must  now  find  the  peace  of  God  by  looking  to 
Christ's  finished  work  on  the  throne,  of  which  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  both  the  sign  and  seal. 

After  Paul  met  Christ  on  the  way  and  learned 
that  in  being  baptized  into  Christ  he  put  on  Christ 
and  washed  away  his  sins,  he  doubtless,  like  his 
fellow-believers,  got  into  the  snare  of  seeking 
sanctification  by  his  own  efforts,  and  got  his  eyes 
off  Jesus,  and  hence  needed  this  new  lesson  to 
learn  how  to  serve  God  in  holiness  and  righteous- 
ness.    He  had  learned  how  he  was  alive  unto  God 


lOO  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

in  Christ ;  how,  as  a  regenerate  man,  he  had  a  new 
Master  to  serve,  a  new  mould  of  doctrine  to  obey 
from  the  heart,  a  new  husband  to  love  and  submit 
to  as  an  espoused  bride  ;  and  now  the  question 
arises,  how  and  where  shall  I  find  the  efiabli/ig 
power  to  do  all  this  ?  Where  is  the  divine  at- 
traction sufficiently  mighty  to  overcome  all  the 
yearnings  and  longings  and  corrupt  tendencies  of 
the  flesh  in  which  dwelleth  no  good  thing. 

The  eighth  chapter  of  Romans  is  the  triumphant 
answer.  In  Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour  I  am  justi- 
fied ;  through  Jesus  Christ  as  Lord  I  am  sanctified. 
Justified  by  His  death  and  shed  blood,  sanctified 
by  His  life  and  Spirit  shed  forth  from  heaven,  as 
His  blood  was  shed  forth  on  earth.  As  there 
was  no  solution  to  the  problem  of  justification 
without  the»  Death  and  Resurrection,  there  is  no 
solution  to  the  problem  of  justification  without 
His  Ascension  and  Intercession,  the  immediate 
fruit  and  sign  of  which  is  the  coming  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  dwell  in  each  believer,  and  become  to 
him  life,  liberty,  power,  strength,  and  all  else  need- 
ful to  victorious  life. 

This  is  the  germ  of  thought  expanded  in  the 
Eighth  of  Romans,  and  it  is  perhaps  the  greatest 
thought  ever  put  before  the  mind  of  a  believer,  and 
therefore  the  most  difficult  for  any  carnal  mind  to 
take  in.  By  faith  I  am  made  one  with  Christ  in 
this  supreme  sense  :  "  He  that  is  joined  to  the 
Lord   is    one  spirit."     i   Cor.  vi,  17.     The  Holy 


SPIRITUAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST        lOI 

Spirit  which  was  in  Him  the  spirit  of  Life  and 
holiness  and  resurrection  and  newness  of  life,  is 
in  me ;  and  what  He  wrought  in  Christ,  He  will 
work  in  me  just  so  far  as  my  complete  surrender 
to  Him  makes  it  possible.  May  it  be  put  still 
more  plainly  ?  Faith  in  Christ's  work  is  indispen- 
sable to  salvation ;  faith  in  the  Spirit's  work  is  as 
indispensable  to  sanctification— to  holiness. 

This  greatest  truth  is  here  presented  in  many 
aspects— like  a  jewel  with  many  faces,  each  re- 
flecting the  light  at  a  new  angle  and  with  new 
colors for  brevity  we  may  select  the  following  : 

Three  Laws  are  mentioned  : 

1.  The  Law  of  God— the  rule  of  Duty. 

2.  The  Law  of  sin  and  death,  a  tendency  in  the 
carnal  man. 

3.  The  Law  of  the  Spirit  of  Life  in  Christ  Jesus 
which  makes  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 

The  Holy  Spirit,  a  new  mind  ox  mode  of  appre- 
hension ;  a  new  law  or  tendency  ;  a  new  life  or 
secret  of  power  ;  a  new  element  or  sphere  of  exist- 
ence. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  here  presented  as  the  Comple- 
ment to  Christ's  work  ;  as  the  new  Element  in  which 
the  believer  lives  :  as  the  Ligament  of  union  with 
Christ. 

He  is  thus  the  secret  of  Enablement.  The  lig- 
ament is  what  makes  the  joint  perfect  and  holds 
bone  to  its  socket,  and  the  invisible  bond  between 
the  believer  and  Christ,  whereby   identity  is  es- 


I02  SHALL    WE    CONTINUE   IN  SIN? 

tablished  and  unity  perfected  and  ability  assured ; 
nay,  affinity  or  like  nature  and  attraction  is  to  be 
found  only  in  Him. 

One  of  these  thoughts  is  here  so  conspicuous  we 
may  well  tarry  to  consider  it.  The  Holy  Spirit  is 
the  disciple's  Element.  We  use  this  word,  Element, 
of  a  simple  substance  beyond  which  our  analysis 
cannot  go ;  and  because  the  ancients  held  that 
there  were  four  original  elements — earth,  air,  fire 
and  water — these  have  been  commonly  known  as 
the  four  elements.  But  the  word  element  has  been 
used  of  the  state  or  sphere  of  anything,  natural  to 
it,  suited  to  its  existence ;  and  so  we  talk  of  earth 
as  the  element  of  the  plant  and  the  worm ;  of  air 
as  the  element  of  bird  and  insect;  of  water  as  the 
element  of  the  fish  and  marine  plant,  and  of  fire  as 
the  element  of  the  Salamander,  whose  cold  body 
was  supposed  to  be  insensible  to  heat  and  to  have 
power  not  only  to  resist,  but  overcome  it. 

The  eighth  and  ninth  verses  not  only  suggest  an 
element,  but  can  be  understood  only  as  applied  to 
an  element.  "  Ye  are  not  in  the  flesh,  but  ///  the 
Spirit  if  so  be  that  the  Spirit  ot  God  dwell  in  youP 
Of  only  one  thing  can  it  be  said  that  it  is  in  that 
which  is  also  in  it,  viz.:  an  element.  The  earth 
is  taken  up  into  the  plant  as  the  plant  is  in  the 
earth.  The  fish  is  in  the  water,  yet  the  water  is 
in  the  fish ;  the  bird  is  in  the  air,  yet  the  air  is  in 
the  bird,  and  if  you  put  the  poker  in  the  fire,  the 
fire  is  also  in  the  poker,  as  you  find  out  if  you 


SPIRITUAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST       IO3 

touch  it.     So  the  Spirit  is  the  element  in  which  the 
believer  lives,  moves  and  has  his  being. 

Now  we  observe  seven  facts  about  the  elements : 

1.  Vastness,  the  element  being  always  greater 
than  all  that  lives  in  it,  and  sufficient  for  all. 

2.  Vitality,  the  element  supplying  life  to  that 
which  it  contains  and  sustains. 

3.  Variety  and  contrariety,  the  elements  differ- 
ing and  even  antagonizing  each  other. 

4.  Independence,  the  element  being  independent 
of  the  animal. 

5.  Indispensableness,  the  element  being  neces- 
sary to  the  animal. 

6.  Mutuality,  the  element  being  in  the  animal 
while  the  animal  is  in  the  element. 

7.  Individuality,  each  element  having  its  own 
peculiar  conditions,  persistence,  and  resistance  to 
temporary  exposure  to  hostile  influence. 

All  these  are  applicable  to  the  Spirit  of  God. 
He  is  infinite,  while  all  that  live  in  Him  are  fi- 
nite. He  is,  therefore,  larger  and  greater  than  all 
the  children  of  God  whom  He  sustains,  and  while 
all  may  have  all  there  is  in  Him,  none  can  absorb 
Him  so  as  to  rob  any  other  or  diminish  aught  of 
the  supply. 

Again,  He  is  the  source  of  all  vitality,  the  very 
breath  of  life,  and  of  all  sufficiency  to  the  believer. 

Again,  there  are  two  elements — the  flesh  and 
the  Spirit,  and  these  are  contrary  the  one  to  the 
other.     The  worldly  man  lives  in  the  flesh,  and, 


104         SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

according  to  the  kind  and  measure  of  his  life,  he 
thrives  in  that  element.  The  spiritual  man  lives 
in  the  Spirit  and  can  thrive  only  in  that  divine 
element. 

Again,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  independent  of  the 
believer  and  can  exist  in  all  His  fulness  without 
him,  while  He  is  indispensable  to  the  believer,  who 
cannot  exist  as  such  without  constant  dependence 
on  Him. 

Again,  there  is  Mutuality,  for  it  is  as  true  of 
Him  that  He  dwells  in  the  believer  as  that  the 
breath  is  in  the  body ;  yet  it  is  equally  true  that 
the  believer  abides  in  Him,  as  that  the  body  must 
abide  in  the  atmosphere  in  order  that  the  atmos- 
phere may  supply  new  breath  at  each  instant. 

And,  finally,  the  Spirit  of  God  has  his  own  condi- 
tions. In  the  world  of  nature  there  are  amphib- 
ious creatures  that  can  live  in  more  than  one 
element,  but  in  God's  spiritual  realm  there  are  no 
amphibious  beings.  True,  there  may  be  a  tempo- 
rary departure  from  the  conditions  of  true  life 
without  the  utter  destruction  of  that  life,  as  the 
fish  may  leap  into  the  air  or  the  bird  drop  into  the 
water,  and  each  may  survive,  because  it  returns 
to  its  own  element ;  but  to  continue  in  the  air  is 
death  to  the  fish,  as  to  continue  in  the  water  is 
death  to  the  bird. 

Now,  here,  if  we  mistake  not,  is  the  most  valuable 
suggestion  in  all  this  teaching,  for  it  explains  how 
and  why  we  are  sustained  in  holy  living  or,  on  the 


SPIRITUAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST       10$ 

Other  hand,  commit  sin.     So  long  as  we  keep  in 
the  element  of  the  Spirit,  how  can  we  intelligently 
and   voluntarily   transgress   against   God?    John 
writes:  "He  that  abideth  in  Him,  sinneth  not," 
i.e.,  so  long  and  so  far  as  we  abide  in  Him,  we 
are  kept  from  sinning ;  it  is  when,  so  long  and  so 
far  as  we  drop  into  the  lower  level,  and  are  in  the 
other  element  of  the  flesh  which  stifles  our  true 
spiritual  life,  that  we  sin.     The  disciple  finds  the 
element  of  the  world,  in  which  the  carnal  man 
lives  and  delights,  stifling  to  his  true  life ;  and  the 
worldly  man  finds  the  element  of  the  Spirit,  if  by 
any  means  he  gets  into  it,  stifling  to  his  worldly 
life.     These  are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other,  so 
that  ye  may  not  in  the  element  of  the  Spirit  do 
the  things  that  ye  would  in  the  element  of  the 
flesh.    Gal.  v.  17. 

The  thought  I  would  impress  is,  that,  in  all  vic- 
tory over  sin,  everything  depends  on  maintain- 
ing the  vigor  and  vitality  of  spiritual  life  by  abid- 
ing in  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  that  the  one  peril  is 
that  we  lose  the  blessed  enablement  by  losing  the 
vitalizing  contact. 

Here,  then,  are  we  to  recognize  the  whole 
secret  of  enablement.  There  is  a  ligament  which 
unites  the  believer  to  Christ  and  through  which 
the  secret  of  His  life  and  power  is  communicated 
to  us — our  unity  being  assured  with  Him  and  in 
Him  with  God.  We  become  partakers  of  His 
Spirit,  and  feel  His  attraction  and  affinity  God- 


106  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

ward  working  in  us.  We  think  as  He  thinks  and 
love  as  He  loves,  and  are  drawn  as  He  is  drawn, 
from  above,  not  from  beneath.  Here  is  en- 
ablement, empowerment.  The  soul  born  of  God 
hungers  and  thirsts  after  God.  Like  birds  which, 
hatched  by  an  intruder,  when  they  hear  the  voice 
of  the  true  mother,  fly  to  her,  a  soul  born  of  God, 
hearing  His  voice,  instinctively  flies  to  His  wings 
and  takes  refuge  in  His  bosom. 


VII 

ETERNAL   UNION   WITH   CHRIST 

Romans  viii.  18-39. 

Here  we  reach  the  fitting  climax  of  this  sublime 
argument,  and  get  the  crowning  point  of  prospect. 
Paul  begins  at  this  point  to  lead  his  readers  to 
take  a  wider  outlook  both  into  the  eternal  past  and 
future.  Time,  with  its  sufferings  and  struggles, 
its  temptations  and  trials,  is  forgotten  in  the 
boundless  horizon  of  God's  eternal  purpose  in 
Jesus  Christ.  The  transition  is  not  abrupt,  but 
natural ;  for  he  has  just  been  referring  to  the 
Spirit's  co-witness  to  our  sonship  and  heirship ; 
and,  as  the  heir  looks  forward  to  an  inheritance,  a 
new  conception  is  now  introduced. 

"  This  present  time  "  has  occupied  our  attention 
hitherto  :  our  present  identification  with  Christ  by 
faith  as  the  ground  of  our  resistance  to  sin  and 
yielding  to  God,  and  our  present  relations  to  Him 
as  Saviour,  Substitute,  Master,  Lord,  Bridegroom, 
as  a  preventive  against  sin,  as  an   incentive  to 


I08  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

holiness.  But  now  the  inspired  apostle  says  :  "  I 
reckon  that  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time  are 
not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  glory  which 
s/iall  be  revealed  in  us  "j  and  from  this  point  the  key 
words  are  "expectation,"  "hope,"  "shall  be," 
"waiting,"  to  be  conformed,  "redemption,"  all  of 
which  look  toward  an  eternal  future ;  or  such 
words  as  "  His  purpose,"  "  foreknow,"  "  predesti- 
nate," "  loved  us,"  which  turn  our  thought  back  to 
the  eternal  past.  And  thus  looking  back  to  that 
love  and  purpose  which  had  no  beginning  because 
before  all  things ;  and  forward  to  that  final  con- 
summation which  knows  no  after  disaster,  Paul 
completes  his  great  argument  by  the  rapturous 
persuasion,  that,  as  there  is  now  no  condemnation, 
there  shall  be  no  separation. 

When  we  apply  to  this  aspect  of  our  union  with 
Christ,  the  word  eter?ial,  we  must  first  understand 
the  meaning  of  that  grand  word.  It  differs  from 
the  words  "  unending  "  and  "  immortal  "  and  "per- 
petual," for  they  refer  only  to  the  future.  For  in- 
stance, an  immortal  life  is  a  life  that,  being  begun, 
has  no  end,  but  an  eternal  life  is  one  which  has 
neither  beginning  nor  end. 

How,  then,  can  it  be  said  that  the  believer  has 
"eternal  life,"  or  that  his  union  with  Christ  is 
"eternal,"  when  we  all  have  a  definite  hour  of 
birth,  and  so  of  beginning? 

Here  lies  one  of  God's  deep  mysteries.  When 
by  faith  we  become  united   to  the   Lord,  we  are 


ETERNAL   UNIOM  WITH  CHRIST         I09 

considered  as  sharing  His  eternal  life,  as  partakers 
of  the  Divine  nature,  and  as  heirs  of  God's  entire 
glory — past,  present  and  future.  Human  illustra- 
tions do  not  reach  to  the  grandeur  of  this  theme, 
but  we  may  get  a  glimpse  of  this  mystery  through 
other  forms  and  facts.  For  example,  when  you 
set  a  scion  in  a  mature  tree,  and  the  graft  becomes 
thoroughly  incorporated  with  the  new  stock,  it 
becomes  part  of  the  whole  tree,  inseparable  from 
it,  and  in  a  storm  or  time  of  frost  or  drought,  all 
the  strength  that  is  in  the  tree  by  reason  of  age  and 
growth  sustains  and  nourishes  the  young  and  fee- 
ble graft.  The  graft  shares  not  the  future  of  that 
tree's  life  alone,  but  all  the  accumulations  of  its 
past  also ;  it  becomes  identified  with  the  whole 
history  of  that  tree.  When  a  child  is  adopted,  or, 
especially,  is  born  into  a  family,  is  made  or  be- 
comes a  son  and  heir,  that  child  becomes  also  one 
with  the  whole  history  of  the  family,  all  its  dignity, 
property,  history,  its  fame  and  fortune,  as  well  as 
its  name  and  social  standing.  It  is  impossible  to 
draw  a  line  at  the  point  where  the  new  son  enters 
the  family,  whether  by  birth  or  adoption,  and  sep- 
arate the  previous  from  the  coming  history.  As 
far  back  as  the  family  lineage  is  traceable,  the 
beginnings  of  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  the 
starting  point  in  culture  and  character — from  that 
remote  point  whatever  the  family  is  and  represents 
has  been  developing,  and  the  new  son  comes  into 
the  inheritance  of  it  all.     There  is  a  law  of  he- 


I  lO         SHALL    WE  CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

redity  that  looks  back,  as  well  as  another  law  of 
inheriiance,  that  looks  forward. 

The  child  born  by  the  Spirit  into  God's  family 
has  not  only  his  inheritance,  but  his  heredity. 
Whatever  the  family  of  God  means,  or  includes,  it 
belongs  to  every  child  of  God.  The  believer,  new 
born,  born  from  above,  made  a  partaker  of  the  di- 
vine nature,  becomes  also  a  partaker  of  the  divine 
history,  dignity,  possessions,  glory.  The  life  before 
him  has  no  end,  and  is  immortal,  but  more  than 
this,  it  has  a  new  quality  and  character,  for  im- 
mortality is  not  necessarily  a  blessing.  Eternal 
life  partakes  of  God's  own  eternal  and  unchange- 
able perfection  ;  it  knows  neither  death  nor  decay, 
but  is  perpetually  young,  knowing  no  advance  of 
age,  which  is  a  form  of  decay.  Whatever  there  is 
in  God's  eternal  past  that  is  beautiful,  victorious, 
glorious,  becomes  part  of  every  believer's  right  and 
privilege  and  possession. 

This  part  of  the  epistle  can  be  apprehended  only 
when  this  sublime  idea  possesses  the  mind.  Here 
the  august  mystery  of  God's  Eternal  Purpose  in 
our  salvation,  sanctification,  glorification,  is  un- 
veiled to  our  astonished  eyes.  Believers  are  de- 
scribed as  "  the  called  according  to  His  purpose," 
and  this  thought  is  further  expanded  till  it  is  un- 
mistakable :  "  For  whom  He  did  foreknow  He  also 
did  predestinate  to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of 
His  Son  that  He  might  be  the  first  born  among 
many  brethren.     Moreover,  whom  He  did  predes- 


ETERNAL    UNION'  WITH  CHRIST         III 

tinate,  them  He  also  called,  and  whom  He  called, 
them  He  also  justified,  and  whom  He  justified, 
them  He  also  glorified." 

Even  a  child  of  God  may  stumble  at  this  mystery 
of  Election,  but  that  it  is  taught  here  is  unmistak- 
able. Every  saved  soul  must  trace  salvation,  back 
of  all  human  choice  of  God,  to  God's  choice  of  us. 
There  was  in  God  both  a  foreknowing  and  a  fore- 
choosing,  and  consequently  a  foreworking.  His 
was  the  whole  scheme  and  plan  of  our  salvation. 
He  devised  it  in  the  solitudes  of  eternity,  and  he 
wrought  it  out  and  is  still  working  it  out  through 
the  ages.  Five  distinct  stages  in  the  development 
of  this  plan  of  salvation  are  here  named  : 

Whom  he  did  foreknow^ 

He  also  did  predestinate. 

He  also  called. 

He  also  justified. 

He  also  glorified. 

One  important  step  seems  here  omitted. — He 
also  sanctified — which  in  the  complete  series  be- 
longs between  the  last  two,  but  it  is  implied  in  the 
preceding  phrase  "  to  be  conformed  to  the  image 
of  his  Son." 

Now  let  it  be  noticed  that,  from  the  foreknow- 
ing and  forechoosing  of  saved  souls,  every  step, 
calling,  justifying,  sanctifying,  glorifying,  is  a  step 
taken  by  God,  rather  than  by  man.  What  we  call 
saving  faith  is  not  an  original  movement  toward 
God  but  a  responsive   movement  to   His.      Faith 


112  SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

chooses  God,  but  in  response  to  His  choice  of  us ; 
faith  calls  on  God,  but  in  response  to  His  calling 
of  us  ;  faith  justifies  because  it  accepts  His  jus- 
tifying work  ;  faith  sanctifies  because  it  surrenders 
us  to  His  sanctifying  spirit  ;  faith  brings  us  to 
glory,  but  because  it  follows  Him  who  prepares 
the  glory  for  us  and  leads  the  way  in  person  to 
that  glory.  The  one  comprehensive  thought  is 
that  my  salvation  from  first  to  last  is  the  work  of 
God.  It  is  for  me  a  present  salvation  having  a 
definite  moment  of  beginning  in  my  acceptance 
of  Christ  as  Saviour.  But  for  Him  it  is  an  eter- 
nal salvation  :  its  roots  reach  down  and  back  to 
the  eternal  past  of  his  purpose,  and  its  branches 
reach  up  and  forward  to  the  flower  and  fruit  of 
perfection  in  glory  in  the  future. 

Such  is  the  grand  conception,  and  if  we  seek  to 
know  its  practical  bearing  on  holiness  we  have  only 
to  follow  the  apostolic  argument.  Paul  himself 
asks,  "  What  shall  we  then  say  to  these  things," 
which  is  equivalent  to  asking,  What  bearing  has 
this  truth  on  noncontinuance  in  sin  ?  We  have 
only  to  note  the  phrases  he  uses,  to  see  what  God's 
eternal  purpose  has  to  do  with  our  holiness. 

We  select  the  following  conspicuous  expres- 
sions : 

The  glory  which  shall  be  revealed  in  us. 

The  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 

The  adoption,  to  wit,  the  redemption  of  our 
body. 


ETERNAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST        II3 

We  are  saved  by  hope. 

All  things  work  together  for  good,  etc. 

Predestinate  to  be  conformed. 

More  than  conquerors,  etc. 

Here  are  seven  emphatic  phrases,  but  they  are 
only  hints  of  a  truth  too  deep  and  broad  and  high 
for  our  measurement.  The  one  impression  from 
the  whole  of  the  latter  half  of  this  chapter  is  that 
our  salvation^  vi'xth.  all  Xhdit  pertains  to  it,  justifica- 
tion, sanctification,  glorification,  is  provided  for  in 
the  changeless  purpose  of  God.  And,  therefore,  im- 
portant as  are  my  will  2ind  faith  and  obedience  and 
conformity,  the  grand  assurance  of  my  present 
holiness  and  final  perfection  is  found  in  another 
Will  back  of  mine,  prior  to  it  and  supreme  over 
it — the  Will  of  God.  To  yield  myself  to  God  is 
therefore  to  yoke  my  impotence  to  His  omnipo- 
tence, and  to  make  possible  for  Him  to  work  in 
me  as  only  He  can  work.  The  more  fully,  there- 
fore, I  trust  and  entrust  myself  to  Him,  the  more 
absolutely  and  fully  will  He  work  in  me  and 
through  me  His  perfect  work. 

This,  then,  is  the  grand  central  thought :  Every 
believer's  Life  is  a  plan  of  God,  the  Father,  and 
hence  part  of  a  larger,  all-embracing  plan  of  the 
Trinity.  A  careful  study  of  the  verses,  from  the 
sixteenth  verse  to  the  thirty-ninth  will  show  that 
at  least  seven  features  of  this  plan  are  here  ex- 
hibited, all  of  them  bearing  on  the  question  of 
noncontinuance  in  sin. 


114        SHALL   WE  CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

1.  Eternity. — This  plan  embraces  past,  pres- 
ent, and  future,  and  we  find  here  the  tenses  that 
correspond  to  this  threefold  fact — retrospect, 
aspect,  prospect.  There  is  the  past :  **  Whom  He 
did  foreknow  He  also  did  predestinate,  called, 
justified."  There  is  the  present  :  We  are  the 
children  of  God  ;  now  no  condemnation.  We  suf- 
fer with  Him  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time ; 
the  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain 
together.  We  ourselves  groan  within  ourselves. 
The  Spirit  helpeth  our  infirmities,  maketh  inter- 
cession for  us.  We  are  more  than  conquerors. 
There  is  also  the  future — if  children,  then  heirs — 
that  we  may  be  glorified  together.  The  glory  which 
shall  be  revealed  in  us ;  the  creature  itself,  also 
shall  be  delivered.  Waiting  for  the  adoption,  to 
wit :  the  redemption  of  our  body.  What  shall 
separate  us  ?  etc. 

What  a  help  and  joy  to  know  that  God  loved 
and  chose  me  long  before  I  loved  and  chose  Him  ; 
that  He  began  the  good  work  in  me  and  will  con- 
tinue it  until  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  the 
perseverance  of  the  saints  is  the  perseverance  of 
God  ! 

This  suggests  a  second  prominent  feature  of 
God's  plan  in  human  salvation  : 

2.  Certainty. — Throughout  this  chapter  there 
is  an  air  of  confident  assurance.  It  begins, 
"  There  is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  ;  "  it 
ends,  "  There  shall  be  no  separation."     It  is  not  a 


ETERNAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST         II5 

may  be,  but  a  shall  be,  throughout.  Man's  plans 
are  always  uncertain,  for  man's  will  is  vacillating 
and  his  energy,  human,  and  his  power  to  carry  out 
his  own  will,  finite.  But  God's  Will  moves  on  its 
changeless  course  through  the  ages.  Perfect 
from  the  beginning,  it  admits  no  change,  and  in- 
finite power  assures  its  execution. 

3.  Unity  and  Universality. — God's  plan  is 
all  comprehensive.  It  embraces  all  the  persons  of 
the  Godhead,  and  all  are  distinctly  mentioned 
here.  We  are  declared  to  be  sons  of  God  and 
heirs  of  God  ;  sons  with  Christ  and  heirs  with 
Christ,  and  both  Christ  and  the  Spirit  are  repre- 
sented as  our  Intercessors  with  the  Father. 

All  believers  are  embraced  in  this  plan.  As 
many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God  are  here 
embraced  in  the  sons  of  God  :  "  Them  that  love 
God  and  are  the  called  according  to  his  purpose." 

"  All  things  "  are  embraced  in  God's  plan,  and 
this  phrase  is  used  here  in  two  widely  different 
senses.  In  verse  28  it  means  all  the  varied  occur- 
rences and  experiences  of  life.  In  verse  32  it 
refers  to  the  varied  bestowments  and  endowments 
of  grace.  God's  plan  leaves  nothing  out.  All 
things  work,  and  work  together  for  good — all 
things,  even  trials,  at  which  we  murmur  and  com- 
plain. The  storms  which  threaten  to  uproot  the 
trees  really  root  them  more  firmly  and  deeply  in 
the  soil.  The  blows  which  one  might  think  would 
make  the  cast-iron  brittle,  really  cause  it  to  un- 


Il6         SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

dergo  a  sort  of  cold  annealing  and  increase  its 
strength  and  tenacity.  The  enforced  rest  of  sor- 
row and  pain,  sickness  and  disappointment,  John 
Ruskin  compares  to  the  rest  in  which  there  is  no 
music,  but  the  making  of  music  ;  not  the  end  of 
the  tune,  but  a  pause  in  the  choral  hymn  of  our 
lives,  during  which  the  divine  musician  beats  the 
time  with  unvarying  count,  catching  up  the  next 
note  as  if  no  breaking-place  had  come  between. 

God's  plan  includes  all  our  temptations.  There 
is  a  divine  philosophy  of  evil,  and  it  is  made  to 
work  good.  Temptation  has  its  holy  office,  its 
benign  purpose.  It  tests  us,  and  so  attests  us; 
it  strengthens  by  revealing  our  weakness  and  so 
the  source  of  our  true  strength,  and  it  actually 
uplifts  and  sanctifies  by  teaching  us  how  to  resist 
and  overcome.  Blessed  is  the  man  that  endureth 
temptation,  for  when  he  is  tried  and  proved,  he 
shall  receive  the  crown  of  life,  the  prize  of  the  vic- 
torious soul. 

God's  plan  includes  the  whole  creation  which 
shared  the  curse  of  the  fall  and  must  share  the 
blessing  of  the  Redemption  ;  and  hence  the  whole 
material  creation  is  represented  as  groaning  and 
travailing  in  pain,  like  a  woman  with  child,  waiting 
for  that  new  creature  that  is  brought  forth  only 
through  such  travail. 

God's  plan  is  like  a  vast  universal  mechanism 
that  fills  the  universe  and  embraces  all  things. 
He  who  loves  God,  and  is  led  by  His  Spirit,  comes 


ETERNAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST        II/ 

into  that  plan  as  a  wheel  into  a  perfect  machine, 
and  henceforth  he  is  a  part  of  God's  universal 
harmony  and  system,  all  "circumstances"  being 
embraced. 

4.  Safety  and  Security.— If  God  be  for  us  who 
can  be  against  us.  There  can  be  no  successful 
opposition.  What  shall  separate  us?  There  can 
be  no  real  separation.  When  once  in  such  a  sys- 
tem, there  can  be  no  collision,  for  every  part  of 
this  perfect  mechanism  has  its  definite  place  and 
sphere  of  revolution,  and  interference  cannot  be 
imagined,  for  divine  forethought  and  wisdom  are 
behind  all  things.  Nor  can  there  be  any  sepa- 
ration, for  that  would  imply  breakage  and  dis- 
aster. 

5.  Sanctity. We  are  predestinated  to  be  con- 
formed to  the  image  of  His  Son.  However  strong 
and  whole  hearted  my  purpose  to  be  the  Lord's, 
my  dependence  is  on  a  Higher  will.  We  have  seen 
how  the  apostle  depicts  the  heroic  but  unsuccess- 
ful conflict  of  the  regenerate  man,  with  the  old 
man  of  sin,  before  he  appreciates  the  power  of  the 
indwelling,  inworking  Spirit  of  God ;  but  now  we 
see  the  will  of  God  reinforcing  and  strengthening 
the  will  of  man. 

Let  us  borrow  an  illustration  from  common  life. 
A  man  in  New  England  has  a  mill,  whose  wheel 
depends  for  motion  on  a  small  and  irregular  water 
supply  ;  but  he  tapped  a  river  near  by,  and  so  got 
an  unfailing  stream  at  his  disposal.    We  need  to 


Il8         SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

tap  the  river  of  God  and  have  His  will  energize 
our  own. 

6.  Victory, — We  are  more  than  conquerors. 
How  is  that  possible  ?  That  expression  is  used 
only  here,  and  where  can  be  found  a  more  sig- 
nificant one.     What  is  this  more  than  conquest  ? 

{a)  He  is  more  than  conqueror  who  organizes 
victory,  not  out  of  conquest  but  out  of  defeat. 

{b)  He  is  more  than  conqueror  who  not  only 
vanquishes  the  foe  but  makes  foes  his  tributaries 
a?id  allies. 

{c)  He  is  more  than  conqueror  who  is  not  only 
victor  in  the  fight,  but  who  conquers  without 
fighting. 

((/)  He  is  more  than  conqueror  who  never  knows 
even  the  fear  of  the  foe^  but  whose  hope  and  faith 
are  victors  in  advance. 

A  true  child  of  God  is  thus,  in  every  sense,  a 
more  than  conqueror.  God  is  with  him  and  none 
can  be  against  him  and  succeed.  He  organizes 
victory  out  of  defeat.  As  Christ  died,  but  in  dy- 
ing brought  deliverance  from  death,  the  child  of 
God  dies  to  live,  and  in  death  triumphs  over 
death.  Hear  Paul  :  "  For  thy  sake  we  are  killed 
all  the  day  long" — a  perpetual  dying,  and  that 
dying  a  victory  over  self  and  Satan.  He  loses  life 
to  find  it ;  he  is  buried  as  a  seed,  but  the  harvest 
comes  up  from  the  burial. 

The  disciple  turns  his  foes  into  his  friends.  The 
trials  and  temptations  that  seem  to  threaten  his 


BTERNAL   UNION  WITH  CHRIST         II9 

peace  and  his  power  and  even  his  final  perfection, 
are  the  means  of  promoting  them.  What  the  Devil 
means  to  use  as  a  messenger  of  Satan  to  buffet 
him,  becomes  the  means  of  a  revelation  of  the  in- 
finite strength  made  perfect  in  weakness.  The  cir- 
cumstances which,  when  they  come  between  us  and 
God,  eclipse  Him,  when  they  are  seen  in  the  light 
of  God's  plan  become  an  additional  cause  of  our 
thanksgiving,  luminous  with  his  purpose. 

The  disciple  conquers  without  fighting.  He 
stands  still  to  see  the  salvation  of  God.  He  aban- 
dons effort  to  rest  on  the  finished  work  of  God. 
And  so  confident  is  he  of  victory  that  he  gives 
thanks  in  advance  for  a  triumph  that  is  so  sure 
that  before  the  battle  the  song  of  victory  is  in  his 
mouth. 

This  eighth  chapter  of  Romans  has  a  sweet  word 
for  the  Christian  disciple  on  this  subject  of  vic- 
tory. 

Who  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's 
Elect  ?  Verses  33-39.  We  too  often  pass  care- 
lessly over  these  words,  without  noticing  their 
comprehensiveness. 

Three  great  questions  are  asked  and  each  has 
reference  to  a  different  class  of  foes  : 

"  Who  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's 
elect  ? " 

"  Who  is  he  that  condemneth  ?  " 

"Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
Christ?" 


120         SHALL    WE   CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 

In  all  these  questions  the  pronoun  is  mascu- 
line, implying  a  person  or  at  least  a  personifica- 
tion. 

The  Person  who  brings  charge  against  God's 
Elect  is  Satan,  the  accuser  of  the  brethren.  But 
we  are  not  to  be  afraid  of  his  accusation,  how- 
ever founded  upon  the  facts  of  our  unbelief 
and  unfaithfulness.  For  we  have  in  God  our 
Justifier. 

He  that  condemns  is  the  Law,  which  is  in  this 
passage  personified,  as  compelled  to  accuse  and 
condemn.  But,  while  justly  condemned  by  the 
law,  there  is  an  atonement  all-sufficient  to  expiate 
guilt  of  past  sin  and  an  advocate  all-sufficient  to 
meet  the  present  and  future  needs  of  a  forgiven 
soul. 

The  separating  barriers  between  us  and  God 
are  here  personified  and  enumerated,  and  they  are, 
first  seven  and  then  ten,  making  seventeen  in 
all — tribulation,  distress,  etc. — study  the  seven- 
teen and  you  will  find  nothing  left  out.  Love 
triumphs  overall.  Tribulation,  love  uses  to  refine 
and  purify  ;  distress,  love  uses  to  bring  us  closer  ; 
persecution  becomes  by  love  a  test  of  love,  and 
its  witness ;  famine  and  nakedness,  peril  and 
sword  only  teach  us  our  true  satisfaction  and 
security  in  God.  Death  only  brings  the  beloved 
together  ;  even  the  demons,  from  the  fallen  arch- 
angel down,  are  under  control  of  Him  who  is  ex- 
alted above  every  name  that  is  named. 


ETERNAL    UNION  WITH  CHRIST         121 

7.  GLORY,  which  shall  be  revealed,  includes  : 

1.  Partaking  of  the  Divine  Nature — sympathy 
with  holiness,  antipathy  against  evil. 

2.  Divine  perfection. 

3.  Divine  bliss — character  and  condition  har- 
monious. 

We  have  thus  outlined  this  great  argument,  but 
it  is  only  an  outline.  God  is  challenging  every 
believer  not  to  go  on  sinning,  and  the  challenge  is 
based  upon  the  believer's  union  with  Christ,  which 
is  manifold  in  its  aspects,  and  almighty  in  its 
power. 

We  can  only  say,  as  we  conclude,  that  it  is  a 
master  device  of  Satan  to  blind  our  eyes  to  the 
true  nature  and  possibilities  of  our  identification 
with  the  son  of  God,  and  so  to  prevent  our  know- 
ing, claiming,  and  enjoying  all  its  benefits.  John 
Huss,  when  talking  to  his  friend  in  prison  at  Con- 
stance, about  a  dream  he  had,  of  the  Pope  and  his 
bishops  trying  to  efface  an  image  of  Christ  on  the 
walls  of  his  cell,  being  advised  to  let  alone  his 
dreams  and  prepare  for  his  defence,  replied — "  I 
am  no  dreamer  :  that  image  of  Christ  will  never 
be  effaced  ;  it  will  be  painted  afresh  in  all  hearts 
by  much  better  preachers  than  myself,  and  /, 
awaking  from  the  dead  and  rising  from  the  grave,  shall 
leap  with  great  Joy."  Even  Pope  Adrian,  the  only 
really  earnest  Pope  of  that  day,  said  to  the  Diet 
of  Niirnberg  (1523),  "  The  heretics  Huss  and  Je- 
rome are  now  alive  again  in  the  person  of  Martin 


122         SHALL    WE   CONTLNUE  IN  SIN? 

Luther."  What  if  the  image  of  Christ  as  the  Be- 
liever's Substitute  and  Surety  could  be  inefface- 
ably  impressed  on  the  very  tablets  of  our  being  ! 
How  would  He  who  rose  from  the  dead,  live  again 
in  the  person  of  the  believing  saint,  and  a  new 
triumph  over  sin,  death,  and  Hell ! 


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for  active  and  successful  service." — Rev.  Henry  M.  Parsons,  D.D., 
Toronto,  Canada. 

"  The  volume  contains  a  connected  history  of  the  modem  mission- 
ary movement,  skilfully,  graphically,  and  eloquently  presented.  It 
is  a  notable  contribution  to  missionary  literature." — Chicago  Advance. 
"  The  map,  the  most  complete  thing  of  the  kind  ever  published, 
will  be  found  of  great  value  to  students  of  mission  and  missionary 
work.  As  to  the  text,  perhaps  no  living  author  has  more  carefully 
studied  every  feature  of  mission  work  and  is  better  fitted  to  give  an 
intelligent  opinion  than  Dr.  Pierson." — Chicago  Inter-  Ocean. 

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BOOKS  BY  BEV.  ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D.-( Co?itmued.) 

THE  DIVINE  ENTERPRISE  OF  MISSIONS.  IGmo, 
cloth,  gilt  top,  $1.25. 

In  Ibis  work  the  author  seeks  the  eternal  and  immutable 
principles  of  mission  worlc  in  the  utterances  of  the  Master 
himself.  The  subject  is  treated  under  the  Divine  Thought, 
Plan,  Work,  Spirit,  Force,  Fruit,  and  Challenge  of  Missions. 

"  Dr.  Pierson  has  come  into  the  very  front  rank,  if  he  does 
not  actually  occupy  a  position  in  advance  of  all  other  agitators 
for  Foreign  Mission  work.  We  know  of  no  other  source 
where  broader  views  or  truer  stimulus  can  be  found  for  this 
greatest  work  of  the  Church." — N.  Y.  Christian  Advocate. 

THE  ONE  GOSPEL;  or  The  Combination  of  the 
Narratives  op  the  Four  Evangelists  in  one 
Complete  Record.  Edited  by  Arthur  T.  Pierson. 
12mo,  flexible  cloth,  red  edges,  75  cents;  limp 
morocco,  full  gilt,  $2.00. 

Without  taking  the  place  of  the  four  Gospels,  this  book  will 
be  an  aid  in  their  study — a  commentary  wholly  biblical, 
whereby  the  reader  may,  at  one  view,  see  the  complete  and 
harmonious  testimony  of  four  independent  witnesses. 

STUMBLING-STONES  REMOVED  FROM  THE 
WORD  OF  GOD.    18mo,  cloth,  50  cents. 

In  this  little  book  many  supposed  difficulties  of  the  Bible 
are  shown  not  to  be  such  in  fact,  and  such  simple  rules  of 
interpretation  of  a  general  character  are  laid  down,  as  to  make 
clear  the  literal  truth  of  many  passages  which  to  some  minds 
have  previously  been  doubtful  or  only  capable  of  the  explaua- 
lion  that  they  were  used  metaphorically. 

"A  little  volume  worth  its  weight  in  gold,  in  which  many 
of  the  difficult  and  obscure  passages  of  Scripture  are  made 
clear  and  ea.sy  to  be  understood." — Christian  at  Work. 

"This  is  a  small  book,  but  it  contains  a  good  deal— remov- 
ing man}^  supposed  difficulties  from  the  Bible,  and  helping 
believers  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  book." — Presbyterian 
Observer. 

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TWO  BOOKS  BY  BEV.  DB.  PIERSON. 

EVANGELISTIC  WORK  IN  PRINCIPLE  AND 
PRACTICE.  By  Arthur  T.  Pierson.  IQmo, 
paper,  35  cents;  cloth,  $1.25. 

An  able  discussion  of  the  best  methods  of  evangelization  by 
an  acknowledged  master  of  the  subject. 

"  If  our  pen  could  become  as  fervent  as  fire,  and  as  fluent 
as  the  wave,  we  could  not  write  either  too  warmly  or  too  well 
of  this  book.  Dr.  Pierson  has  given  us  a  real  book — a 
thunderbolt— a  cataract  of  fire.  These  tlame-flakes  ought  to 
fall  in  showers  all  over  Christendom,  and  set  every  house  on 
ti  re. ' ' — Spurgeon. 

"The  book  tingles  with  the  evangelistic  spirit,  and  is  full 
of  arouseraent  without  sliding  into  fanaticism." — Springfield 
Republican. 

"  A  stirring  trumpet-blast  to  every  earnest  soul  it  reaches." 
— Clirisiian  at  Work. 

•'  Everjr  page  is  tilled  with  the  evangelistic  spirit.  .  .  .^  Dr. 
Pierson  is  full  of  facts,  arguments,  incidents,  illustrations, 
and  pours  them  over  his  pages  in  a  molten  stream." — N,  T. 
Evangelist. 

LOVE  IN  WRATH;  or,  The  Perfection  of  God's 
Judgments.  An  Address  before  the  Mildmay  Con- 
ference, London,  Eng.  By  Arthur  T.  Pierson. 
Leatherette,  gilt  top,  35  cents. 

Tills  interesting  theme  is  graphically  treated  by  Dr.  Pierson 
under  the  captious:  I.  The  Judge  ;  II.  The  Court;  III.  The 
Judgment;  IV.  The  Execution;  V.  The  Judged. 

"  This  is  one  of  the  best  volumes  which  has  come  from  the 
hands  of  Dr.  Pierson.  In  this  day,  when  religion  is  so  apt  to 
be  regarded  as  a  sentiment,  it  is  refreshing  to  liave  one  como 
out  so  plainly  upon  the  subject  which  Dr.  Pierson  treats. 
His  discussion  is  admirable.  He  presents  arguments  and 
draws  conclusions  which  cannot  be  refuted,  and  which  show 
how  the  superintending  and  superaboundiug  love  of  God  ia 
manifested  in  his  judgments." — Central  Baptist. 

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«■— — . ■ — "^ 

SERMONS  BY  THREE  FAMOUS  PREACHERS. 

STIRRING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST,  and  OTHER 
PRACTICAL  DISCOURSES.  By  Rev.  Theodore 
L.  CuYLER,  D.D.  12mo,  cloth,  with  a  photogravure 
portrait  of  the  author,  $1.25. 

A  collection  of  eighteen  sermons  thoroughly  representative 
of  the  author's  characteristic  style  and  speech. 

"In  this  volume  we  have  this  great  Presbyterian  divine, 
whose  name  has  deservedly  become  a  household  word  iu 
America,  at  his  best.  They  are  strong,  clear,  spiritual,  help- 
ful." — Boston  lyaveller. 

'*  It  is  such  sermons  as  these  that  are  worth  publishing  and 
have  a  permanent  v&lue."— Presbyterian  Journal. 

THE  HEART  OP  THE  GOSPEL.    Twelve  Sermons, 

delivered  at  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle,  London, 

England.     By  Arthur  T.  Pierson.    16mo,  cloth, 

gilt  top,  $1.25. 

"  They  stand  as  examples  of  Dr.  Pierson's  conspicuous  abil- 
ity as  an  extempore  speaker.  The  sermons  ring  out  the  good 
old  Gospel  in  sweet  clarion  tones.  There  is  no  uncertainty 
as  to  their  doctrinal  orthodoxy,  nor  is  there  any  lack  of  adap- 
tation in  them  for  winning  souls." — N.  T.  Obsei'ver. 

MILK  AND  MEAT.  Twenty-four  Sermons.  By 
Rev.  A.  C.  Dixon,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Hanson  Place 
Baptist  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  12mo,  cloth, 
$1.25. 

These  discourses  which  have  been  delivered  to  very  large  and 
enthusiastic  audiences,  seek  in  book  form  a  still  wider  hear- 
ing. The  author's  nervous,  energetic,  and  pictures(iue  style 
of  exposition  gives  his  spoken  and  written  words  an  unflag,:;ing 
interest,  which  holds  the  auditor  and  reader  to  the  end.  Apt- 
ness of  illustration  and  pointed  and  forceful  presentation 
characterize  the  book :  while  avoiding  the  grotesque,  it  is 
thoroughly  popular,  entertaining,  and  natural. 

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THBEE  STANDABD  BOOKS  ON  MISSIONS. 

THE  CRISIS  OF  MISSIONS ;   or,  The  Voice  Out 
OF  THE  Cloud.    By  Arthur  T.  Pierson.     Paper, 
35  cents;  cloth,  $1.25. 
"  One  of  the  most  important  books  to  the  Cause  of  Foreign 
Missions— and  through  them  to  Home  Missions  also— which- 
ever has  been  written.     It  should  be  in  every  library  and 
every  household.     It  should  be  read,  studied,  taken  to  heart, 
and  prayed  over." — Congregationalist. 
THE  DIVINE   ENTERPRISE   OF  MISSIONS.     A 
Series  of  Lectures  delivered  at  New  Brunswick, 
N.  J.,  before  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  America  upon  the  "Graves" 
Foundation  in  1891.    By  Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson, 
D.D.    16mo,  cloth,  gilt  top,  $1.25. 
"The  book  is  thick-sown  with  striking  illustrations,  rich  in 
the  lore  of  missionary  heroism,  burning  with  love  for  souls, 
fresh  and  vigorous  in  its  exposition  of  Scripture.    Nowhere 
have  we  seen  a  more  stirring  presentation  of  the  Christian's 
function  of  co-working,  co-suffering,  co-witnessing  with  the 
Triune  Qodi."—Post-Or actuate  and  Woosier  Quarterly. 

THE  GREAT  VALUE  AND  SUCCESS  OF  FOREIGN 

MISSIONS.    Proved  by  distinguished  witnesses. 

By  Rev.  John  Liggins,  with  an  Introduction  by 

Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D.    12mo,  2^9  pages; 

paper,  35  cents ;  cloth,  75  cents. 
A  powerful  presentation  of  overwhelming  evidence  from 
Independent  sources,  largely  that  of  Diplomatic  Ministers. 
Viceroys,  Governors,  Military  and  Naval  Officers,  Consuls, 
Scientific  and  other  Travellers  in  Heathen  and  Mohammedau 
countries,  and  in  India  and  the  British  Colonies.  It  also  con- 
tains leading  facts  and  late  statistics  of  the  missions. 

"  A  grand  and  irrefutable  reply  to  those  who  are  fond  of 
decrying  missions." — Christian  at  Work. 

"An  overwhelming  mass  of  tGstimouj."^Sprt7igfi6ld  Re- 
publican. 

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BAKER  &  TAYLOR  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

THREE   PUJ-.PIT  AND   PASTORATE   BOOKS. 
THE    DIVINE   ART    OF    PREACHING.    By  Rev. 
Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 

Contents. — I.  The  Sermon  as  au  Intellectual  Product. 
II.  The  Preacher  ainoug  His  Books  III.  The  Preacher 
with  His  Themes.  IV.  Tlie  Preacher  Training  His  Memory. 
V.  The  Twin-Luws  of  the  Sermon.  VI.  Types  of  Sernmu 
Structure.  VII.  The  Preacher  among  the  ^Mysteries.  VHl. 
Tlie  Preacher  among  the  Critics.  IX.  The  Preacher  with 
His  Bible.  X.  The  Preacher  in  His  Pulpit.  XI.  The 
Preacher  among  Snares.  XII.  The  Preacher  among  His 
People.     XIII.  The  Preacher  Communing  with  the  Spirit. 

"  It  contains  the  freshest  thoughts  of  one  of  the  leading 

()reachers  of  the  world,  on  a  subject  of  deep  interest  to  min- 
sters everywhere." — Cumberland  Presbyterian. 

HOW    TO    BE    A   PASTOR.     By   Rev.    Theodore 
CUYLER,  D.D. 

Contents. — I.  Importance  of  Pastoral  Labor.  II.  Paa- 
toral  Visits.  III.  Visitation  of  the  Sick— Funeral  Services. 
IV.  Treatment  of  the  Troubled.  V.  How  to  Have  a  Work- 
ing Church.  VI.  Training  Converts.  VII.  Prayer-meetings. 
VIII.  A  Jlodel  Prayer  meeting.  IX.  Revivals.  X.  Diawiug 
tlie  Bow  at  a  Venture.  XI.  Where  to  be  a  Pastor.  XII.  Joys 
of  the  Christian  jMinistry. 

"The  fruit  of  large  native  seuvSe,  long  experience,  wide 
observation,  and  devout  consecration." — Congregaiionalist. 

THE  WORKING  CHURCH.    By  Rev.  Charles  F. 
Thwing,  D.D. 

1.  The  Church  and  the  Pastor.  II.  Tlie  Character  of 
Church  Work.  III.  The  AVorth  and  Worthlcssness  of 
Methods.  IV.  Among  the  Children.  V.  Among  the  Young 
People.  VI.  Among  Business  Men.  VII.  From  the  Business 
Point  of  View.  VIII.  Two  Special  Agencies.  IX.  The 
Treatment  of  Strangers  X.  The  Unchnrclicd.  XI.  D'lties 
Towards  Benevolence.  XII.  The  Rewards  of  Christian  Work. 
!MII.  In  the  Count ly  Town. 

"Every  chapter  is  full  of  pitli,  bristling  with  points,  wise, 
sound,  and  practical." — The  Evangelist. 

IGmo,  cloth,  gilt  top.  In  a  set,  $2.25.  Separately,  each, 
75  cents.     Sent,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  t/ie  price,  by 

THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  CO.,  Publibhers. 

o  AND  7  East  Sixteenth  St.,  New  York. 


Date  Due 

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